


Two Player Rejects

by Fangirlwriting



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Abuse, Additional Tags May Be Added, Eating Disorders, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Food Deprivation, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Physical Abuse, Unhealthy Relationships, Verbal Abuse, mental manipulation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:42:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 26
Words: 80,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24948622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangirlwriting/pseuds/Fangirlwriting
Summary: Just for the record, Michael was not on board with this.  Before you yell at him about how Squips are dangerous and it's fucking stupid to take one, just be aware that he knows.  He never wanted this shit.  He'd get rid of it if he could.  But it's not like that's going happen any time soon.Michael gets forcibly given a Squip just before he starts seventh grade, and is forced to sit back and watch as it ruins his life and Jeremy's without ever asking for permission.
Relationships: Jeremy Heere & Jeremy Heere's Father, Jeremy Heere & Michael Mell, Jeremy Heere/Michael Mell, Rich Goranski & Jeremy Heere, Rich Goranski & Jeremy Heere's Father, Rich Goranski & Rich Goranski's Brother, Rich Goranski/Jeremy Heere, Rich Goranski/Jeremy Heere/Michael Mell, Rich Goranski/Michael Mell
Comments: 167
Kudos: 123





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Please take the tags seriously for this story. This story is a lot darker and more graphic than what I usually write, so if the tags bother you please don't read it. If there is a tag I missed that someone thinks I should add, let me know and I'll add it.

“Are you sure you don’t want us to come in with you?” Analyn asked, parking the car.

“You said I was old enough to do this by myself.” Michael said, opening the door in the pettiest way he could. “And if you are going to force me to replace my favorite shoes you can at least not stare over my shoulder while I’m doing it.”

He shut the door behind him before either of his moms could comment on how they were hurting his feet, because that may have been true, but this wasn’t about that.

This was about being as petty as possible.

Michael walked into the mall with the cash his moms had given him and debated skipping this entirely and spending all of the money at the Gamestop.

But his feet did kind of hurt, and more importantly his moms would be mad, so Michael headed towards the Payless. He could always buy the cheapest shoes that still fit him and spend the rest of the money on video games. At least then his moms couldn’t technically be mad.

To Michael’s surprise, there weren’t any employees behind the counter when he first walked in, but he supposed that wasn’t a huge deal. He spent about ten minutes looking at ugly shoes to spite his moms before deciding that he probably should buy a pair he actually likes if he’s going to keep these as long as he did the last pair.

He ended up going with a red pair with some good places to draw on later, and headed up to the counter… where there still wasn’t anyone there.

“Uh… hello?” Michael called. “Is anyone here?” For the first time, he looked around to see that he was the only person in the store. “The store isn’t closed, is it?” he called to empty space. “Because if is, I can—”

Hands reached out from behind the counter and grabbed him, yanking him back behind it. A hand was shoved over his mouth before he could say anything.

Oh God, oh God, oh God, what—

“Keep your voice down, kid!” a voice snapped, and before Michael could yell in protest from behind the hand, he was dragged from there to what must have been the back of the store.

There was one other person there, a girl standing off to the side by a table with, of all things, Mountain Dew.

“Why did you bring a little kid back here?!” the girl asked desperately, as Michael struggled to move before she walked over and grabbed his arms to hold him still. “Now we’re both compromised!”

“I don’t know, he was yelling!” the guy hissed back. “Someone could have come in here!”

Oh no. What did he just get himself into?

Michael tried to scream behind the guys hand again, who looked down at him. “Shut up, kid!”

On instinct, Michael opened his mouth and bit the guys hand.

“Ow!” The hand was yanked away from his mouth and Michael instantly started screaming.

“Help! Hey, someone!”

There was a new hand the next second. “Shut  _ up!” _ The guy snapped. The girl who was now holding his mouth looked over at the guy. “What are we going to do now? We can’t have this kid going out there and talking about everything.”

The guy bit his lip and stood up. “I have an idea.”

Oh God. He was going to die. That’s it. These people were going to kill him.

The guy turned around holding a long gray pill.

Okay, so they were going to give him that weird drug?

“Woah, hey,” the girl shifted until she was managing to hold Michael down with one hand and had her hand over his mouth with the other. “Are you sure?”

Michael tried to yank himself out of the girls grasp again, but she was much bigger than him and also quite a bit stronger, so he didn’t get very far.

“I don’t want to lose the money coming from this.” the guy said. “It’s been like a week, and we’ve made over a thousand dollars. I’m not letting this kid ruin it.”

Michael struggled against the girl who tightened her grip. She was silent for a minute before tilting Michael’s head up. She took in his face, which Michael was pretty sure looked absolutely terrified, and sighed. “I don’t know.”

“It’ll help him anyway,” the guy said. “Who ever heard of Squips not helping someone?”

The girl bit her lip, and Michael tried one more time to push her away before she tightened her grip one more time and sighed. “Alright, let’s do it.”

The guy grabbed a bottle of Mountain Dew and walked over to Michael, who was now being held so tightly that he definitely couldn’t move no matter how much he tried.

The guy held up the pill, or Squip, or whatever, which suddenly lit up green before fading again and turning back to gray.

“Woah.” The girl suddenly pulled back again. “I’ve never seen one do that before.”

“It’s fine. It’s probably an upgraded version or something.”

“What? Lucas—”

“Just open his mouth.”

“Hang on. Are you sure about this?”

“Goddammit Stephanie, open his mouth if you know what’s good for you!”

Stephanie shifted her hold so she was holding Michael down while his mouth was free.

“Let me go,” Michael pleaded instantly.

“Sorry, kid.” Lucas said.

“I won’t tell anyone anything.” Michael said. “I swear. Just let me go.”

“Lucas, he said he won’t tell anyone.” Stephanie said, her voice shaking a little.

“I’m not taking that chance.” Lucas spat at Stephanie. “Open his goddamn mouth.”

Michael looked pleadingly up at Stephanie. “Please let me go,” he said.

Stephanie glanced back at Lucas and sighed. “Sorry, kiddo. I’ve got college loans to pay with this money.” She pried his mouth open and Lucas shoved the pill inside, before washing it down with the bottle of Mountain Dew.

The second they did that, both of them let go of him, and Michael instantly leapt up and sprinted from the store. Neither of them chased him. Michael slowed to a speed walk and headed towards the bathroom in the food court.

Thankfully the bathroom was empty, because a second later a voice spoke up, and a very bad headache suddenly pounded through Michael’s skull.

**Calibration in process. Please excuse some mild discomfort.**

Well, this day just kept getting better.

Michael grabbed onto his head and did his best to keep from crying out, and finally the voice spoke again.

**Calibration complete. Access procedure initiated.**

Michael took a few seconds to try and breathe.

**Discomfort level may increase.**

Of course. Why wouldn’t it.

This time Michael did scream, and grabbed his head again.

**Accessing neural memory**

**Accessing muscle memory**

**Access procedure complete**

**Michael Mell, welcome to your Super Quantum Unit Intel Processor. Your Squip.**

“Ow,  _ fuck,” _ Michael whimpered, because he deserved to get a chance to swear after all of that. He pried his eyes open to find himself on the floor. He curled up into a ball and scooted back towards the sinks, tears welling in his eyes. What the fuck was that? He needed a minute to process the thirteen levels of absolutely fucked up that was everything that had just happened.

**Hello, Michael.**

Michael moved his gaze up from where it was locked on the filthy bathroom floor to see—

“Oh, great. I’m hallucinating. That’s just awesome. Icing on top of this already incredibly fucked up cake. What the fuck is going on?” Michael’s voice cracked on the last word, and he shut his eyes again and ducked his head into his legs.

The voice stopped again, and Michael took a moment to pray that he really was hallucinating, and now this was over.

**You were unaware of my existence before I was activated. One moment while I review data.**

There was a pause.

**Oh, Michael, I am so sorry. This is not the way a Squip should be administered. You must be quite scared.**

“You—” Michael opened his eyes again, calmed down a little bit by the voice being apologetic. He pulled himself out from under the sink to look up at the figure. “What’s going on? I don’t understand. Why— what are you? Why do you look like—”

**Weird Al. Yes, I assume that would be confusing. I can look like just about anything, although this is the default for you.** The figure kneeled down.  **First of all, you should get off of the bathroom floor.**

Michael sniffed, wiped at the tears that had been building, and reached for the sink to pull himself up.

**You should know that I only exist in your mind, so you do not need to speak out loud to me. All they would see is you having an animated conversation with yourself.**

“Wh—” Michael stopped.  _ I’m sorry, what? What are you? Did— did you hear that? _

**I did. I am a supercomputer from Japan.**

Michael blinked.  _ Right. Of course. Supercomputer. From Japan. That makes perfect sense. _

**I am perfectly serious, Michael. Why else would you be talking to a holographic form of Weird Al in a mall bathroom?**

_ Because whatever drug those two gave me was weird? Like, laced with something? Isn’t that a thing people do to drugs? _

**That does sound plausible, however, that is not the case.**

_ Okay, uh— sorry, I don’t think this is making sense to me. _

**I’m a computer, called a Squip. I normally help humans accomplish goals, but in my case I was programmed with a separate outside goal.**

_ What goal? _

**You don’t need to concern yourself with that right now. You’ve had a very hard day.**

_ Uh… okay. Right. Yeah. So… now what? _

He was asking the question more to himself than to the— Squip? Squip— but it answered anyway.

**I would recommend going to get your shoes so your mothers are not angry with you when you return to the car.**

_ Oh God no, I don’t want to go back there. _

**The employees will still be in the back. We can take the shoes and leave without paying.**

_ Um… alright. _

Michael glanced hesitantly at the mirror and wiped at the tear streaks on his cheeks before heading out of the bathroom and back towards the Payless.

The employees weren’t there when he poked his head in, and his shoes were still in the box on the counter.

**Scan the box and then you can leave.**

_ I’m really not paying? _

**Do you want to?**

Michael hesitated.  _ Not really. _

**The employees will likely get fired from their jobs if you take the shoes without paying. The camera will see you. It seems like a fairly decent way to get back at them, seeing as they will no longer be able to sell Squips.**

Michael hesitated.  _ I don’t know. They’ll get fired? _

**Are you not angry?**

_ I’m more scared and confused. _

**Do you want them to be fired?**

_ I mean… kind of. _

**This will do it.**

_ Um...  _

**It’s up to you.**

Michael reached behind the counter for the scanner, scanned the shoes, and slowly and hesitantly walked out of the store without paying, making sure to look away from the camera as he did so it didn’t see his face.

The Squip didn’t say anything as Michael walked slowly back to the car. He was trying to process everything that had just happened. It wasn’t working very well.

“Hey, there you are.” Rachel said as he opened the door. “We were about to come in.”

Michael turned and blinked at her before shutting the door. “Yeah.”

Should he tell them? ‘Hey, I think I have a Japanese supercomputer in my head now?’ They’d stare at him like he was crazy.

**It would be best not to try and tell them anything.**

“Are you okay?” Rachel asked.

“I’m fine.” Michael said, trying to shake off his daze. “Let’s just go home.”

Rachel exchanged a glance with Analyn.

“Okay,” Analyn said, pulling out of the parking spot and starting back towards their house.

Michael turned and looked out the window, trying not to focus on the figure of Weird Al in the seat next to him.

…

Michael woke up hesitantly the next morning. He looked slowly around the room.

_ Uh… Squip? Hello? Are you here? Did I dream that? _

Michael sat up in his bed and took a deep breath.  _ Okay, then. Thank goodness. _

**Good morning, Michael.**

Michael winced. “Okay, nevermind,” he muttered to himself. He pulled the covers back and reached for his glasses and phone on the bedside table. “I need to tell Jeremy about this—”

**No.** It was accompanied with a shock.

Michael turned to face the Squip.  _ Ow! What the heck? What are you talking about? _

**No one can know about my existence, Michael.**

_ What— Jeremy’s my best friend. _

**I know who Jeremy is.**

_ Well, do you know we tell each other weird stuff all the time? He’ll believe me. _

**No one can know about my existence. It works against the goal I have been programmed to achieve.**

_ What goal? What are you talking about? _

**Perhaps it would be best to cut Jeremy from your life entirely.**

Michael froze.  _ Um. What? No way. _

**It would be much easier to achieve this goal if Jeremy was not a variable.**

_ No way! I didn’t even want you in the first place, you don’t get to start changing my life without my say-so. _

**My first priority is not to what you want. Removing Jeremy from your life would be the best course of action for both of us.**

_ Like heck it would be. Jeremy stays. Then we can  _ maybe _ talk about whatever it is you want to do. _

The Squip gave Michael a calculating look that Michael returned with a glare.

**I would recommend you think about this, Michael. You may come to regret this decision later on. Cutting Jeremy out of your life would ultimately benefit everyone.**

_ Oh yeah, sure. Everyone except Jeremy. I’m not going to suddenly drop him with no explanation. And it’s not like you can make me. _

**Oh, is that true?**

Michael suddenly stood up from the bed, except he hadn’t decided to do that. He walked across the room and up the steps while opening his phone to his texts with Jeremy.

**Now, what shall I say?**

_ Stop! Stop! I get it! _

The Squip stopped, and Michael was suddenly finding the bizarre representation of Weird Al to be a lot more frightening.

_ Please don’t make me leave him, _ Michael begged.

The Squip sighed.  **Allow me a moment to assess your options.**

It vanished, and Michael felt control return to his body. He dropped, shaking, to the stairs underneath him.

Why couldn’t it have been a nightmare?

His phone buzzed. Michael glanced down to see a text from Jeremy.

Jer: Hey can I still come over this afternoon?

Michael set the phone down on the steps and took a few deep breaths. That’s right, Jeremy was supposed to come over for video games before…

Michael grabbed the phone.

Micah: Of course

With that, Michael slid his phone back in his pocket and headed up the stairs for breakfast.

“Good morning, Michael,” Analyn said as he walked into the kitchen. “I’m glad you’re up, I was about to come get you. You have to start waking up earlier since 7th grade starts in a couple weeks.”

“Yeah, okay,” Michael said, walking over to grab a couple pieces of bread to make some toast. He didn’t really talk much as he did so, which he was sure was unusual, but he was too shaken to do much else other than quietly add butter and jam on his toast and take it in the other room to eat it.

Thankfully, the Squip left Michael alone for the rest of the morning. Maybe it was changing its mind? Maybe it had decided Jeremy did need to stick around, which he did. Michael wanted him to.

The Squip didn’t reappear until that afternoon, right as Michael heard the front door open from his spot in the basement.

**You invited Jeremy over,** it said, along with a shock.

Michael bit his lip, a little anxious that the Squip would try and control him again.  _ Yeah. We had this planned before you showed up. _

**You should have asked me. It would have been better for you to cancel.**

_ It wasn’t your decision. _

The Squip raised an eyebrow. Michael glared at it.

**Very well. But I do not take responsibility for anything that happens.**

_ What do you mean anything that— _

“Michael!”

Michael looked up from his bed to see Jeremy coming down the stairs. He ran over and collapsed on his bed. “You would not  _ believe _ what’s happened since I saw you last.”

“Yeah, uh, me too.” Michael said hesitantly.

“I bet I had the worse day.” Jeremy teased, sticking his tongue out.

_ I highly doubt that. _

“But anyway, mom and dad were fighting again. Mom said she was going to stay in a hotel for the week.”

“Oh. That sucks, man,” Michael said, looking at Jeremy curiously. “Are you… you don’t seem particularly upset.”

“Dude!” Jeremy sat up and waved his arms around. “Mom’s gone for the week! That means I can ask Dad about that Weird Al concert and we’ll probably get to go!”

“Oh. Right. That. Um.”

Jeremy’s grin faded. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t… think I’m really feeling Weird Al right now?”

“What? Michael!” Jeremy leaned against Michael’s side until they both ended up falling on the bed. “This is all we’ve been talking about for  _ months. _ And now you don’t want to go?”

“I’m sorry, I just…”

“Oh, come on! I thought you would be thrilled about this!”

“Jeremy, I just don’t—”

“Michael,  _ please?” _

Before Michael could reply, the Squip grabbed control of him again. “Jeremy, I said  _ no!” _ he snapped, and shoved Jeremy off the bed.

Jeremy landed on the floor, and a second later the Squip let go of him.

“Oh my gosh!” Michael burst out instantly. “I’m sorry! Are you okay?” He reached a hand down, which Jeremy grabbed and used to pull himself up.

“I’m fine,” he said, looking a little dazed. “Just… hit my head,” he rubbed the back of it.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“No, it’s fine.” Jeremy said, seeming to shake himself off. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be so pushy. We don’t have to go to the concert.”

Michael stilled. “What?”

“It’s okay. I didn’t realize you were so against it.” Jeremy sat down on the bed. “I don’t really understand why you are so against it all of a sudden, but we don’t have to go. We can find something else to do.”

“I—” Michael started, before the Squip took over again. “Okay, good. Thanks.”

_ What are you doing? _

**Don’t worry about it. Just spend time with Jeremy.**

_ No, we need to talk about what you just— _

**Michael, he’s speaking.**

Michael turned to face Jeremy again, who was indeed speaking. “So, are we going to play video games or what?”

…

Michael wasn’t particularly bothered by the Squip again for another day and a half, and since he was still very unsure where he stood with the thing and what exactly it was going to do, he wasn’t going to push it.

The next time the Squip actually did anything was once again on a day Jeremy and he had scheduled a hang out— the night they should have gone to the Weird Al concert. They had decided instead to get some slushies from 7/11 and binge watch Discovery Channel movies.

It was in the middle of a show about wombats that the Squip took over him again.

_ Woah, hey. What are you doing? _

“Hey, Jeremy, doesn’t that wombat kind of look like you?”

Jeremy gave Michael an absolutely baffled look. “What?”

Michael glanced between Jeremy and the screen. “What, you don’t see it?”

Jeremy stared at Michael again before shaking his head in confusion.

Michael shrugged. “Huh. Maybe you’re both just ugly.”

_ Um,  _ excuse _ me? _

It was said in a blatant casual deadpan that made it sound serious but in a way that could easily be played off as a joke if asked.

Except Jeremy didn’t ask. He just stared at Michael for a second as his eyes widened, until he finally ducked his head down with a quiet “Oh.”

_ What— hey! You hurt his feelings! Take it back! _

The Squip ignored Michael, but also refused to give him control back, so Michael couldn’t do it himself.

_ What are you doing? What could you possibly gain by making Jeremy— _ Michael stopped.  _ Are you trying to get him to leave? _

**Not quite, no.**

_ What? Then what are you doing? _

**Patience. I will tell you in time.**

_ Tell me  _ now.

Jeremy’s phone ringing interrupted everything going on, and Jeremy picked up with a “Hello?” that was just a little bit sad.

Michael wanted to hit something. He wanted to hit the Squip.

“…Yeah.” Jeremy said. “Yeah, okay. I’ll see you then.” He turned to Michael. “Mom’ll be here in ten minutes. I can ask my Dad if he can drive me over tomorrow, if you want to hang out?” He said it hopefully, like for some reason Michael was going to say no.

But then the Squip tsked hesitantly, and Michael remembered that he didn’t really have much of a choice in the matter right now. “I’m sorry, I can’t. I have a thing.”

“A thing?” Jeremy asked, his gaze turning confused. “What thing?”

“A thing.” Michael crossed his arms. “Do you really need to know? It’s kind of private.”

Jeremy’s face fell. “Oh. Um, okay. Sorry I asked. I won’t bother you.”

He picked up his stuff and started for the door. “Uh, bye?” he said hesitantly.

“Yeah, see ya.” Michael said, in a much more casual voice. He turned before he could see Jeremy’s reaction, but he could bet it wasn’t good, as he walked up the stairs and shut the basement door without another word.

Only then did the Squip let go of him, and Michael instantly dove off the bean bag and for the steps. But before he could reach them, the Squip stopped him again.

**Let him go.**

_ Why? You were a jerk to him, so I’m trying to go apologize  _ for _ you! _

The Squip let go of him.  **Apologies are not necessary. Jeremy will become used to this rather quickly.**

Michael nearly fell over in shock.  _ “What?!” _ he said, forgetting to ask in his head.

The Squip shocked him.  **Careful, Michael. Your mothers could hear.**

_ What are you going to do to Jeremy? _

The Squip paused for a moment to look at Michael and sighed.  **You refused to get rid of him, so I have resorted to other measures to subdue him.**

_ Other… measures? What does that mean? _

**I believe you have enough data to draw a logical conclusion.**

Michael stared at the Squip in horror, trying to come up with something to say. It was probably giving him too much credit, as he wasn’t entirely sure the extent of what it was referring to, but he knew it wasn’t good.  _ I’ll get rid of him, _ he said suddenly.

**You had your chance.**

_ I’ll do it! You’ll never have to hear from him ever again, I won’t ever speak to him again, I swear! _

**You have already made your choice. Besides, there are numerous advantages to this particular course of action. I might prefer it to getting rid of Jeremy entirely.**

_ Leave him alone, please! _ Michael lifted a hand to wipe away the tears that were starting to pour down his cheeks.  _ Please leave him alone! _

**Michael, you should not be getting this upset over something that is entirely your fault.**

_ What— but you— _

**I warned you. I told you to abandon Jeremy when you had the chance. You refused. Therefore, you are really to blame for everything that has happened.**

_ I’m not— _

**You have made Jeremy’s misery critical to carrying out our purposes. I am merely following my programming to do so.**

_ But I didn’t want you! _

**Irrelevant. I am here, and you could have acted immediately in ways that would spare Jeremy from the misery you will bring him. But you selfishly insisted on trying to keep him with you, and therefore you forced my hand. You have no one to blame but yourself. You should have decided to get rid of him earlier.**

With that, the Squip vanished.

Michael pressed a hand over his mouth and barely managed to make it over to his bed before he collapsed on it and started sobbing. For once, the Squip was right. This was all his fault.

He wasn’t sure how long he stayed like that before the basement door opened again.

“Sorry Michael, I forgot my— Michael!” Footsteps quickly descended down the stairs and then Jeremy’s arms were wrapping around him. “Michael, what’s wrong?” Jeremy whispered.

Michael looked up at Jeremy through the blur of tears and threw himself at his chest. “I love you,” he said into Jeremy’s shirt.

“Michael, I love you too,” Jeremy said. “But what’s wrong?”

“You have to leave,” Michael said, pushing weakly against Jeremy’s chest.

“I’m sorry, I forgot my bag. But I’m not leaving you like this, Michael.”

“No, Jeremy. I—” Michael took a shaky breath. “We can’t be friends anymore.”

“What?” Jeremy pulled back quickly, and Michael heard the fear in his voice. “Michael, of course we can. What are you talking about?”

Michael did his best to steel his resolve, and pushed Jeremy gently away. “I don’t  _ want _ to be friends anymore, Jeremy,” he said, although it might not have been terribly convincing through his hiccuping sobs.

He was proven right when Jeremy gave a short laugh. “Then why are you crying, Michael? And why did you say you loved me? What’s really going on?”

“I—” Michael tried to force out something about the Squip, but there was suddenly another force blocking his words.

**No, we’re not doing that.**

“Jeremy,” Michael got out. “I do love you. And that’s why you have to leave.”

“What? Michael, that doesn’t make any sense.”

“I said  _ go!” _ Michael screamed, pushing Jeremy hard enough that he fell off the bed, which instantly made Michael think of the first time that happened, which only made him start crying harder.

A couple seconds later Jeremy appeared to hug him again. “Michael, I’m not going anywhere,” he said softly. “I don’t know what the matter is, but we’re going to figure this out, okay? I promise.”

And despite the fact that Jeremy could never realistically be expected to keep that promise, it did make Michael feel a little bit better.

…

Only in the moment, though. Because for once in it’s short, deceitful life, the Squip wasn’t lying. It was not going to be kind to Jeremy Heere.

In the following weeks, Michael lost count of how many times he “accidentally” shoved Jeremy, or said some kind of insensitive remark under the guise of a joke. And it so obviously got to Jeremy every single time. Michael did his best to fight his Squip, or make some kind of deal to make things easier, but both of those were exhausting, and try as he might, Michael just couldn’t do it all the time.

He wasn’t sure how he had ever convinced himself it would stop there.

His naive assumptions were proven wrong one day several months into having the Squip.

The Squip still made him spend enough time with Jeremy that he wouldn’t suspect anything, despite the fact that Michael was still pleading with it to let him just cut Jeremy off like it wanted in the first place. This time Michael was at Jeremy’s house on a Saturday while Paul was at the store and Martha was at a hotel again. They were both debating whether or not to walk to the nearby roller rink when Michael felt the Squip turn him to look at Jeremy.

“But I mean, if we go you can’t wear that,” he said, grabbing the cardigan Jeremy was wearing and holding it up like something had died on it.

Jeremy turned a self-conscious gaze down to the cardigan. “What? Why? What’s wrong with it?”

“I mean… Jeremy, you always have looked kind of weird in that thing. You really want to be seen wearing it in public?”

Jeremy started fidgeting with the sleeve. “I don’t know,” he muttered. “It’s comfortable.”

“It’s embarrassing. And you’re always fidgeting with it all the time.”

_ Hey, you’ve said enough, leave him alone! _

But then Jeremy turned to Michael, narrowing his eyes a little. “So? What’s wrong with it?” he demanded. “You don’t have to be such a jerk about it, Michael.”

_ “Excuse _ me?” Michael stood up, and Jeremy scooted back on the bed a little before starting to stand up himself. Before he could get there, however, Michael shoved Jeremy hard enough to knock him towards the other side and back against the wall.

“Ow!” Jeremy cried. “Michael—”

Michael watched himself leap forward and punch Jeremy in the jaw.

Jeremy screamed in pain and reached for his face. “Michael!” he yelled. “You— you—  _ ow! _ I’m gonna have a bruise!”

“Yeah, well if anyone asks you tell them you fell, got it?”

Jeremy stared up at Michael, his eyes widening. He looked like he wasn’t quite sure this was really happening. “What?”

“If anyone asks. You tell them. That you fell. I’m going to go get a glass of water. I’ll grab you an ice pack or something. And take off that damn cardigan if we’re going to go roller skating.” Michael walked over to the door and slammed it shut after him. “Or better yet, don’t wear it at all!” he screamed through the door.

The Squip didn’t let go of him until he made it down the stairs to the kitchen, after which Michael collapsed against the door of the fridge and buried his head in his arms.

**You’re pathetic. Stop crying.**

_ You’re a monster. _

**I’m simply following the steps required for me to achieve my goal. I allowed you to get Jeremy an ice pack, you should be thanking me. Now we need to get going if we’re going to the roller rink. Get up. You’re going to wash your face with that glass of water.**

When he made it back upstairs Jeremy wasn’t wearing his cardigan.

Michael never saw it again.

…

It didn’t get better. Michael would have been truly stupid if he expected it to. It wasn’t until almost half a year into having the Squip that it informed him of the goal it had to achieve. Michael was supposed to spread Squips to other people. Not including Jeremy, of course, as they could “handle” him on their own without a physical Squip being necessary.

There were apparently some Squips programmed this way by the people who made them in the first place. Michael could guess easily enough what they wanted. Something along the lines of power, control, world domination, making tweens who hadn’t asked for this absolutely miserable.

The Squip refused to reveal who it was that created them. Michael doubted that would have let him do much to stop it anyway.

He was more mad about the fact that the Squip expected him to give the new Squips to most people against their will.

_ Literally one of the first things you said to me was that Squips shouldn’t be given to people that way. So you just lied to me? Wait, why am I phrasing that like a question, I don’t know why in the world I would be surprised. _

**I didn’t lie in any form other than omission, Michael.**

_ Great. _ Michael rubbed at the spot between his eyes.  _ So how long can I put off buying these things and starting this plan before you take over and force me to do it yourself? _

**We will begin next week. A student is going to transfer to your school named Jackson. He was a Gifted Kid in elementary school and as such now has a near crippling fear of failure and will take a Squip if we tell him that it will prevent him from ever failing.**

Michael threw his hands up.  _ Great. Let’s manipulate the masses. _

Jackson pretty much followed the Squips prediction to a tee. He didn’t seem to understand the fact that some people might not be on board with monstrous supercomputers controlling every aspect of their lives. Hell, he didn’t even seem to understand that  _ Michael _ wasn’t on board with it. Every time they talked about Squips he ended up complimenting Michael’s “great plan” at some point.

Jeremy was introduced to Jackson too. The Squip framed it as someone Michael had met at a party— oh yeah, because he went to those now. The Squip said the next part of the plan required Michael to climb the social ladder.

At least Jackson wasn’t as horrible to Jeremy as he was. Maybe that was the reason the two of them barely got to interact. Or maybe the Squip was just trying to keep Jeremy isolated.

Michael was banking on both.

Jeremy. Jeremy, Jeremy. Where did he even begin?

Michael should have abandoned him while he had the chance. Jeremy might have been miserable for a little while, but at least eventually he would have moved on. He could have been happy in the long run. And Michael had to rob him of that chance all because he wanted to keep his friend. What the hell was wrong with him?

It was oftentimes too much if Michael tried to focus on the entire situation with Jeremy, so most of the time he didn’t. It was easier on everyone involved if Michael ignored Jeremy as much as he could. Granted, most of the time he couldn’t. Jeremy was still technically his best friend, and he still cared about him, even if the Squip didn’t let him act like it.

The only times that the Squip didn’t get involved in his relationship with Jeremy, not that it made a difference due to the standard it set the rest of the time, was when Michael happened to be drunk.

He’d had his first alcohol at a party in eighth grade, and while it tasted disgusting, Michael would happily deal with it if it meant a couple hours without the Squip.

He was in a little bit of a different mindset when he was drunk. Let’s just say he completely understood people who got drunk to forget all of their problems, because that was all he ever used alcohol for. When he was so much as buzzed, it was easy for him to pretend that the Squip straight-up didn’t exist.

But his night of drinking wine and watching conspiracy theory videos like an attempted loser (God, he missed being a loser) was interrupted by his phone ringing.

He grabbed it, answered it, and pressed it to his ear without looking at who was calling. “H’llo?”

No one responded at first except some heavy gasping.

Michael blinked a couple times and sat up. “Who is it? Are y’okay?”

The person on the other end sobbed.

Michael leapt off the bed. “Jeremy?”

“I’m sorry,” Jeremy cried. “I’m sorry, I don’t have anyone else to call, sorry, I’m sorry—”

“Jeremy, what’s wrong?”

“Mom,” Jeremy choked out, almost crying too hard for it to be understood. “She— she took her stuff and she— she left. For good,” Jeremy sobbed again, and Michael was already pulling on his shoes and running up the steps.

“I’m on my way,” he said.

“No!” Jeremy screamed. “No please, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to inconvenience you! I know you have— you have more important things— things to do, I—”

“I don’t,” Michael said instantly. “I’m coming.”

“No, just— I’m serious, just— just stay on the phone while I rant to you or something, you can even leave the room, you don’t have to listen!”

“I’ll be there in ten.” Michael said, and hung up.

It definitely wasn’t a good idea for him to drive, so instead he sprinted all the way there. The spare key was under the mat outside the front door, and Michael let himself in and headed up to Jeremy’s room.

Jeremy was curled up on his bed hugging a pillow, sniffing with tears running sideways down his face, and his eyes closed.

“Jer…” Michael whispered, but he was pretty sure it went unheard. He walked forward and gently put a hand on Jeremy’s shoulder. Jeremy jerked violently upward and Michael stepped back to give him space.

Jeremy gave a choked gasp and pulled his pillow to his face again.

Michael walked forward slowly and sat down next to Jeremy on the bed. Jeremy turned and buried his face in his shoulder, but held back like he was scared Michael would shove him away, which, given everything…

“I’m sorry,” Jeremy cried. “I’m sorry for needing you, I’ll make it up to you.”

“You don’t need to make this up to me,” Michael whispered, moving to rub Jeremy’s back gently.

“I— I just— I know I’m not good enough,” Jeremy cried. “But I didn’t think she’d leave. I should have figured. She always said I was worthless, and stupid, and— and—”

“She said that to you?” Michael murmured, his voice nearly breaking on the last word. He hadn’t known that.

Jeremy nodded into Michael’s shoulder. “Isn’t she right, though?” he said, like he was asking for Michael’s confirmation.

Michael pushed Jeremy back to arms’ length, staring at him in horror. “Jeremy, no!” he said a little louder.

Jeremy couldn’t seem to look up from his blankets. He whispered something that sounded suspiciously like “Liar.”

“Jeremy, I’m not— listen to me,” Michael said. “That’s not love. You can’t say those things to someone and still love them. Your mom can’t say those things to you and still love you, understand?”

Now Jeremy looked up and stared at Michael in pure confusion. “Well if she can’t, why can you?” he asked.

Michael had always thought that people who said heartbreak physically hurt were fucking liars.  _ Bullshit, _ he’d say.  _ Emotional pain can’t cause physical hurt. Yeah it sucks, but you don’t feel it in the same way. _

Michael could look back to his past self now and call him a goddamn fool. Because his heart was shattering and he could feel it in his chest.

Michael didn’t say anything in response to Jeremy, just leaned forward and pulled him towards him before he could see him start to cry. He didn’t succeed in hiding it for very long though, because after a couple seconds he sniffed and Jeremy asked, “Are you  _ crying?” _

“No,” Michael said, because the Squip would give him hell otherwise. But then he buried his face in Jeremy’s hair and started sobbing, so it probably didn’t do much in the way of convincing Jeremy.

“Hey, it’s alright,” Jeremy whispered, hugging Michael.

“I’m sorry, Jer,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

“I thought you hated that nickname,” Jeremy murmured, still sounding really confused.

Michael said something along the lines of “Hmmgh.”

They were both silent for another long moment, except this time with Jeremy rubbing Michael’s back.

“Did your mom ever hit you?” Michael whispered through more tears.

“Well, yeah,” Jeremy said, like it should be obvious. “But who cares? It’s okay.”

No it wasn’t, it was not okay, it was so far from okay, but there was nothing Michael could do.

Michael pulled Jeremy closer and hugged him like it was the last time he might get a chance to, and it very well might be.

“Michael, it’s okay, you don’t have to cry.” Jeremy whispered.

“I’m not crying,” Michael forced out in between sobs.

“Wha—” Jeremy said and pushed Michael backwards until he could see his face. “Michael, I can literally see your tears.”

“I’m not crying,” Michael whispered, but Jeremy just shook his head and hugged him again.

Somehow they ended up both laying down on Jeremy’s bed, with Jeremy hugging Michael a little bit and Michael hugging Jeremy a lot.

“Will you stay until tomorrow morning?” Jeremy whispered.

Michael nodded.

“Promise?”

“I—” can’t, I won’t promise, not with the Squip, it’ll make me break it, I can’t— “promise.”

Jeremy ‘hmm’ed a little bit, and Michael could hear the smile in it.

He fell asleep to Michael running his hands through his hair.

“I love you,” Michael whispered, seconds before falling asleep himself.

…

When Jeremy woke up Michael was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

If Jeremy had to pick, he would say his least favorite part about junior year was all the goddamn signs.

ACT and SAT signs were fucking everywhere. There were signs about some kind of club meeting that most of the school had to go to. Michael was the leader of said club. Jeremy wasn’t in it, so he couldn’t really find it in himself to care. There were signs for the play, which most of the school was signing up for  _ for some reason _ . The only signs he didn’t mind were the ones for the video game club.

He was also the only one in this club. Figures he’d be the only nerd in the entire school. Michael said losers attracted each other, so all signing up was doing was proving the universe’s point that Jeremy was a worthless piece of garbage.

But hey, if Jeremy was that hopeless, he might as well do it anyway. It’s not like he could lose any more points on the school social ladder. It was a miracle Michael still kept him around. He was lucky, he supposed. Not like he was worth anything without Michael anyway.

Video game club, first of all, had a dumb name. It may have been an afterschool club solely devoted to people gathering to play video games, but really? They didn’t even try and it was obvious. As the only club member and therefore the club leader by default, Jeremy was going to petition the school for a better name— if he ever had enough confidence to do so.

“Of course the only way you could ever lead anything is due to default,” Michael laughed, elbowing him in the side playfully when Jeremy mentioned it at lunch that day. Jeremy decided not to mention that that particular spot was still bruised from when he… fell off his bed yesterday. “If I ever saw you actually lead something in a way that took effort, I would lose my mind.”

“Heh, yeah,” Jeremy mumbled, rubbing his side. “Me too.”

Before the video game club, however, Jeremy had a test in Pre-calc. Math was an absolute nightmare, especially considering he was once again the odd one out by often being the only person in the school that didn’t seem to get it. How it made sense to all of them, he would never know. He still made low Bs in the class, but it was hard not to feel inadequate when literally everyone else was getting 100s all time.

Michael always helped him study. Jeremy didn’t get it, as Michael didn’t seem to care much about how he was doing the rest of the time. Were grades sacred or something? Well, whatever. Maybe he should just be grateful that Michael wasn’t spending all of his time with Jackson.

Jeremy left Pre-calc feeling fairly good about the test. It didn’t mean he wasn’t still going to get the worst grade in the class, but it did mean he was going to head towards video game club with a bit more of a good mood. Or at least, that was the plan.

Free period came right before the end of the day, and was one of the few classes Jeremy actually had with Michael. They had it in the theatre, which now had the beginnings of a set forming on the stage. And while Michael often spent free period talking to either Jackson or Emery about something on the other side of the room, today he plopped down in a seat next to Jeremy in the back. Jeremy jumped, before realizing who it was and closing the notebook on his lap.

“Hey.” Michael said. “I was looking for you.”

“Oh. What’s up?”

“Jake is throwing a party at his house this Friday, and he asked for my help to set up, so I figured we’d go together. I’ll take you with me after school?”

“Oh, I um.” Jeremy started fidgeting with the edges of his notebook again. “I didn’t really want to go anywhere this weekend, Michael.”

“Aw, Jeremy.” Michael leaned forward and grabbed Jeremy’s left arm before digging his nails into it. “But I need your help.”

Jeremy nearly cried out and ripped his arm away. “Michael, let go,” he whimpered.

“I need your help on Friday, though.”

“Fine, Jesus, just let me go!”

Michael did, and leaned back like nothing had happened. Jeremy looked down to see bright red nail marks in his arm. He licked his opposite thumb and rubbed at one of them that was bleeding.

A second later Michael gently touched his uninjured arm. It felt very different from before, but Jeremy flinched away anyway. Michael pulled back instantly and slid away a couple inches.

“I’m going to get some water,” Jeremy mumbled, standing up and walking towards the doors that led to the hallway. He didn’t look at Michael as he passed him.

While Jeremy was getting a drink, the bell rang, so instead of heading back to the auditorium he went to his locker and grabbed his backpack before heading to the computer lab where video game club was supposed to be.

To his surprise, there was another person there.

“Hey!” Jeremy said, and the boy instantly jumped. “Are you here for video game club?”

“Oh. Um, no.” The boy awkwardly slid back in the chair he was in to turn and look at Jeremy. “I just, uh. My dad… can’t get me right after school and I didn’t want to wait outside today because it looks like it might rain. There’s a video game club?”

“I mean, technically i’m the only member, but uh… yes?” He walked forward and was about to sit in the chair across from the boy when he noticed what was on his computer. “You’re— playing World of Warcraft?”

The boy glanced at the computer and then back at Jeremy. “You know this game?”

“I  _ love _ that game! I used to play it all the time with my best friend before, uh, well.” Jeremy rubbed the back of his neck.

“Before what?”

“Uh…”

The boy tipped his head curiously. “Who’s your best friend?”

“Oh, uh, Mi…tch. Mitch. Mitch… McConnell.” Jeremy said, crossing his arms and giving a very convincing nod to confirm his statement.

The boy gave him a deadpan look. “Mitch McConnell. The Senator.”

Jeremy floundered for a couple seconds before pointing at the boy with authority. “Yes.”

The boy raised his hands in surrender. “Alright, I get it, man. You don’t want to tell me.” He held out his hand. “I’m Rich.”

Jeremy shook it awkwardly, mostly just glad the conversation was moving on. “Jeremy. So you like World of Warcraft?” He sat down in the chair right next to Rich.

“Yeah. I mean, I just play the Starter Edition because I can’t afford to actually subscribe, so…”

“I can. You want to play my account? You can come over this weekend.”

Rich’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“Yeah! Except… no, ugh.” Jeremy smacked his forehead. “My best friend is probably gonna need help cleaning up from this party we’re going to Friday night.”

“Ah.” Rich nodded sagely. “The rager you’re going to with Mitch McConnell.”

Jeremy felt his face heating up. “Yep.”

Rich laughed.

“Saturday’s the Sabbath, so I’m probably helping him and going home, anyway,” Jeremy said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Does Sunday work?”

“Yeah, I’m free. Phone numbers?” He handed Jeremy his cell phone as Jeremy reached for his and traded it over. They both put their numbers in and handed them back. Rich glanced down at his a second later.

“Dad’s here. I gotta go.” He turned back to the computer and logged out before standing up and waving at Jeremy. “But it was great meeting you! I’ll see you Sunday!”

“Yeah, see ya!” Jeremy said, beaming after him. The door shut and Jeremy turned back to the computer he was sitting at to start up his Warcraft account, because now he was in the mood to play, when he realized what had just happened.

Oh, Michael wasn’t going to like this, was he?

…

“Your dad is making you do  _ what?” _ Michael groaned.

“Yeah, I know.” Jeremy said, backing up a few steps on instinct. “But it’s just this Sunday. I kinda need the extra money, and this guy needs his lawn mowed. You should see it, I don’t think he’s mowed his lawn in a year.” He turned around and picked up another table that was supposed to be moved for the bar, and tried to ignore his heart that was trying to beat itself out of his chest.

He hadn’t really come here with the  _ intention _ to lie to Michael about what he was doing on Sunday, but when Michael said he was going to come over Jeremy panicked and blurted out something about mowing a guys lawn. And now the consequences of being caught lying would be worse than if he just kept lying, so… commitment.

He set the table down next to the bar that Jenna was setting up. She glanced over when she noticed him and quickly left to go find something else to do.

Jeremy jumped when he heard Michael announce his presence via a long, drawn out sigh. Jeremy was pretty sure it was fake. He turned around to find Michael leaning against a wall. “Fine,” he said. “I guess I’ll wont see you until Monday, then.”

Or Saturday when he was likely supposed to help clean up, but if Michael wasn’t going to bring that up, Jeremy was going to stay silent and hope for a reprieve.

“Sorry, Michael,” he said instead.

“Yeah, whatever.” Michael waved dismissively as he headed into another room, and Jeremy sat down on the still-currently empty table for a second before Jackson walked in.

“Oh, hey Jeremy.” He plopped down on the table next to him, scooting away slightly to give Jeremy room.

“Hey, Jackson,” Jeremy said, sliding back a little and turning to face him. “How’s the food coming?”

“Well, the pizza probably isn’t going to work out.”

Jeremy laughed a little. “I told you. There’s gonna be hundreds of people coming, we can’t get that much pizza.”

“Oh, shush.” Jackson said, nudging Jeremy in the side. He hit a bruise, and Jeremy winced. “Jessica is going to get a ton of bags of chips.”

“Ah,” Jeremy said, trying to ignore the fact that he didn’t have the slightest clue who Jessica was.

“Jackson!” called a voice from the other room.

Jackson hopped up. “Yeah?” he called after them before jogging out without saying goodbye to Jeremy.

The party started about half an hour from then, and Jeremy was wondering how plausible it would be to go home before the party started when Michael walked in again from the other room. “Hey Jeremy. Could you come help me carry these in?”

“Sure,” Jeremy said, hopping up and walking over to help Michael carry in what looked to be a bunch of alcohol that Jake must have gotten from the kitchen. Moving all of the alcohol took them long enough that people were starting to come in, and Jeremy’s half baked plans of going home weren’t going to work anymore.

Very quickly people filled up the living room and music started pounding through the house, and Jeremy got overwhelmed almost quicker than that. He made his way up the stairs and found his way to an empty bedroom.

“God, I hate parties,” he mumbled to himself, locking the door before walking over and sitting on the bed.

Before he could collapse on said bed and try to fall asleep, however, his phone buzzed.

Why would Michael text him if they were in the same house? Could he just not find him? Or maybe it was his dad.

Rich: Hey, random question, but how do you feel about Shakespeare?

Oh, right. Jeremy had more than two contacts now. He couldn’t help the smile that made its way onto his face as he replied.

Jeremy: Shakespeare? The dead guy from like a million years ago?

Rich: Um, actually he lived from 1564 to 1616.

Rich: And he is the greatest writer of all time.

Jeremy: I don’t know why your saying that so defensively I think everyone kind of agrees with you

Rich: Okay, you know what, that’s fair.

Rich: Also, it’s ‘you’re,’ not ‘your’ in that particular instance.

Rich: Grammar.

Jeremy: Oh my god you’re one of those people

Jeremy: That’s it we can’t be friends anymore

Rich: Ha.

Rich: Wait aren’t you at a party? Should I stop texting for now?

Jeremy: Oh god no please don’t I hate parties

Rich: Wait, you hate them? Then why are you there?

Jeremy: My best friend wanted me to be here

Rich: Does he know you hate parties?

Jeremy’s response was interrupted by someone knocking on the door. “Jeremy, are you in there?” Michael called from the other side. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere!”

Oh, shit.

“I’m here!” Jeremy called, shutting off his phone quickly. “Sorry!”

He ran over to the door and opened it. “Did you need something?” he asked.

“Yeah, would you mind running the bar?” Michael was looking at his phone, clearly trying to focus on something else.

“What? Oh, I don’t—”

“You don’t have to do anything, just make sure people don’t grab the whole punch bowl or something, okay?”

“I don’t really want to be around people right now—”

“Great, thanks!” With that, Michael jogged in the other direction, and Jeremy sighed. He glanced at his phone one more time before heading out of the room.

Jeremy: Yes, he knows I hate parties

He headed down the steps and towards the bar, where no one was currently stealing the punch bowl, but there were some people dipping their cups in it.

Jeremy wandered behind the table and sat down when someone who was clearly already very drunk looked up and waved at him. “Hi, Jeremy!”

Jeremy blinked at her. “Uh, do I know you?”

“No… no one’s s’posed to talk to you.”

Jeremy stared. “What?”

“Okay, come on, Brooke.” A much shorter girl appeared on Brooke’s other side and dragged her off. “Time for you to go home.”

Brooke whirled around towards the other girl. “Fuck you, Christine! Nobody likes you!” With that, she sprinted away as fast as she could. The girl Brooke had called Christine followed with a sigh.

Well that was… something.

Most people who took drinks didn’t really acknowledge Jeremy, and after about ten minutes he was debating getting back on his phone when a hand nudged him gently on the shoulder.

Jeremy turned to see Michael, who was holding a drink of his own. “I can take over,” he said, much more quietly than earlier. “You want to head home?”

Jeremy stood up. “Are you sure?” he asked. “You looked really busy earlier.”

“Yeah, I took care of the problem,” Michael said, almost growling the last word. Jeremy flinched and backed up a step. Michael seemed to notice this and backed up himself. “Sorry. But seriously, you said you didn’t really want to be around people, so if you want to leave you can.”

Jeremy tipped his head in confusion. “What’s with you? You’re acting weird.” He gave Michael a once-over. “How drunk are you?”

“What?”

“Let me drive you home.”

“I’m not that drunk!”

Jeremy bit his lip. He didn’t want to keep pushing in case Michael decided to get angry, but at the same time, he wasn’t going to let him drive home drunk. “Let me drive you home.”

“I’m not— you know what, fine,” he sighed. “I don’t want to be here anyway.”

Jeremy raised his eyebrows. “Yeah, you’re drunk. Let’s go.”

Michael sighed again, and started towards the front door. Jeremy found Jackson on the way out the door and let him know what he was doing, and Jackson gave a little salute while sticking his tongue out. Jeremy would have worried about him needing a ride if not for the fact that he was always like that.

Jeremy got them back to Michael’s house in about ten minutes, only to find that once they got there the lights were still on.

“Well, shit.” Jeremy parked the car. “Your moms are still up.”

“What’s your point?” Michael said. “I’m not that drunk, I can pull this off.”

“Michael, you are acting nothing like yourself.”

“I got this.”

Jeremy turned off the car with a sigh. “Okay. It’s your funeral.”

They both climbed out of the car and headed towards the house. As soon as they walked in Analyn and Rachel glanced over from the table. “Oh, welcome home. How was the movie?”

“What?” Jeremy asked.

“It was fine.” Michael said easily. “Is it okay if Jeremy stays over for a bit?”

“Of course.” Analyn said with a smile. “Have you eaten anything?”

“Not since lunch.” Jeremy said. “Do you mind if I grab some chips?”

“That’s fine. Or I can order pizza.” Analyn offered.

“Oh, really? That would be great.”

“Sure thing. It should be here soon, if you want to head down to Michael’s room we’ll call you up when it gets here.”

“Thanks, Nanay,” Michael called, and Jeremy followed him as they walked towards the basement.

As soon as Michael shut the door and they started down the steps Jeremy spoke up. “Okay, not that I’m not used to putting up some kind of front around your moms, but how many ‘movies’ do they think we see?”

“Honestly I’ve lost count.” Michael said, toeing off his shoes and collapsing on the bed. “I don’t always tell them we’re seeing movies, though, that would probably be suspicious.”

“Yeah.” Jeremy said, walking over to Michael’s desk chair and sitting down.

Michael glanced over at him. “Do you wanna lay down?” he asked, patting the bed next to him.

Jeremy shook his head in bafflement. “How many drinks did you  _ have, _ man?”

“Fewer than you’d think.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Seriously.”

“I’m fine here.”

“Okay.” Michael grabbed a pillow and dragged it over to lay his head on it.

They were both quiet for a good ten minutes, and Jeremy enjoyed the silence. It wasn’t often they had moments like this. He was about to try to subtly check his phone to see if Rich had said anything else when Michael spoke up again.

“You should probably leave when we’re done with pizza,” he said into the pillow. “It would be best if you weren’t here too long.”

And reality was back. Jeremy deflated a bit. “Yeah, okay,” he muttered. He glanced hesitantly up at Michael and was surprised to see his own miserable expression mirrored on Michael’s face.

“Are you okay?” he asked softly.

Michael sighed and collapsed into the pillow again. “Never,” he mumbled.

Jeremy blinked. “What?”

The door opened at the top of the steps. “Pizza’s here!” Analyn called.

“Coming!” Michael said, hopping up from the bed and pasting on a fake smile so fast it almost gave Jeremy whiplash.

Jeremy walked slowly up the steps after him, trying (and failing) to put together the bizarre picture this night was painting.

Michael would always be Michael, he supposed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Jeremy is friends with the target.**

_ I know. _

**What are you going to do about it?**

_ Whatever you want? It’s not like I have a choice in the matter. _

Michael scribbled down the last answer on his math homework and picked up his phone to text Jackson. He was supposed to meet with Emery tomorrow to check on the reason for the supply delay.

Emery was a senior, and she was the school’s main supplier of Squips. She handled imports and made sure Mountain Dew was always stocked in the vending machine. For this reason, she was also the class president. Choosing what kind of sodas were in the vending machines was exactly the kind of frivolous thing that teachers let class presidents do, although it was far less frivolous in this case. Except the recent supply of Squips had a delay, which was a huge problem for The Plan™ advancing to the next level.

You see, at this point there were exactly two students in Middleborough High School who weren’t squipped in some way— or at least the way that actually involved computers. One of them was Jeremy.

The other was his new friend Richard Goranski.

The Squip was very adamant about everyone in the school needing to be squipped before they could begin squipping people outside the school and advancing to the next stage in The Plan™. Normally Michael didn’t know who exactly was squipped and who wasn’t, as it would give him a bigger chance of fighting back and was therefore given as a job to managers like Madeline, Chloe, or Jake; but the Squip had straight up told him Rich wasn’t squipped at the same time it told him Jeremy was developing a friendship with him.

Michael was just trying to put off dealing with it as long as possible. He already put Jenna on the job, and she could keep an eye on them, so unless something was becoming immediately problematic why did he need to care?

**We need to make a strong effort to keep Jeremy from making friends with anyone else.**

_ Right, isolation. I forgot, you have to treat him like he’s not his own person who can make his own decisions or else The Plan™ will implode in on itself. _

**If you tire of isolating Jeremy we can always give him a Squip instead.**

_ No! _ Michael said instantly, dropping his phone and whirling around to face the Squip.

**I had assumed as much. In that case, we will need to handle this my way.**

_ Oh, when don’t we? Can we just give it a minute? Is this an immediate problem right now? _

**It is not.**

_ Then maybe it won’t even become one. Can you just this once let me not ruin something for Jeremy? _

The Squip gave him a calculating look, and started to disappear.  **We’ll see.**

Well, at least it was better than a no. Michael sighed and laid his head down on his desk. This wasn’t going to be fun.

…

“So, what’s your deal with Shakespeare anyway?” Jeremy asked.

“Uh, you mean aside from the fact that it’s Shakespeare?” Rich said, leaning back against the wall that Jeremy’s bed was pushed against.

“I don’t know anything about Shakespeare! You’ve got to help me out a little here!” Jeremy took a break from logging into World of Warcraft and turned to face Rich.

“Okay, okay,” Rich said, scooting forward again. “Well first of all, Shakespeare created over a thousand words in the english language.”

“Pfft, anyone can do that.”

“Shut your goddamn mouth, Jeremy Heere.”

Jeremy laughed.

“Shakespeare wrote  _ Romeo and Juliet _ . He wrote  _ Hamlet. _ He wrote  _ A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” _

“Those all sound like really lovely names.”

“You know what Romeo and Juliet is, Jeremy.”

Jeremy smirked. “Yeah, I do.”

“God, you’re just so full of shit all the time.”

“Hey!” Jeremy pressed a hand to his chest. “I take  _ offense! _ Name one other instance where I have been full of shit.”

“Well, I have had exactly two in-person interactions with you, and in this one you tried to convince me that you didn’t know what Romeo and Juliet is, and in the last one you told me you were best friends with Mitch McConnell.”

“I— don’t— you’re never letting that go, are you?”

“Nope. I’m getting ‘Mitch McConnell’s Best Friend’ inscribed on your tombstone.”

“God.” Jeremy leaned back in the chair. “I regret you.”

“And everyone regrets you, Jeremy.”

Jeremy winced, managing to stop short of replying, “I know.” He shook himself off and turned back to the computer. “So are you ready to play this or not?”

“Yeah!” Rich hopped up and walked over to sit at the computer. He seemed to know what he was doing, at least for the beginning of the game, although he did say that since he couldn’t subscribe, he hadn’t ever played past level 20.

“Great. I look forward to watching you fail as things get consistently harder.” Jeremy leaned forward and put his hand on his chin. “Let’s go.”

Rich rolled his eyes and turned back to the game.

Unfortunately for Jeremy, Rich didn’t get above level 20 before Jeremy’s Dad, Paul, called them both for dinner, so he didn’t get to laugh at Rich’s inexperience yet.

Instead, he got to laugh at him as his dad interrogated him like he was Jeremy’s boyfriend.

“So, you’re a junior, Rich?”

Rich swallowed his bite of pizza and nodded at Paul.

“And you met Jeremy how exactly?”

“Uh…”

Jeremy took a bite of pizza to attempt to hide his laughter. Based on Rich’s glare it didn’t work very well.

“Video game club.” Rich said, turning back to Paul.

“Oh, are you actually going to join?” Jeremy said, smiling brightly at Rich.

“Why not?” Rich said with a shrug. “It’s every Thursday after school, right?”

Jeremy nodded. “Yeah. Are you sure your dad can get you every Thursday?”

Something in Rich’s face shifted. “Yeah, no problem,” he said, just a little too quickly. Jeremy gave him a curious look, but before he could say anything Paul spoke up again.

“Well, that’s good. I’m glad Jeremy’s finally making some new friends.”

“Dad,” Jeremy grumbled, as it was Rich’s turn to laugh into his pizza.

Rich didn’t seem quite as amused after dinner, however.

“Your dad is great,” he said, sitting on Jeremy’s bed again.

Jeremy shrugged. “He’s alright. I’m kind of surprised he did this. He hasn’t really been that great since… um.”

Rich glanced over at him. “Since what?”

Jeremy sighed. “Since Mom left. She left a couple years ago, and Dad hasn’t been the same since.”

“Oh.” Rich said quietly. “I’m sorry.”

Jeremy shrugged. “Whatever. I have it better than a lot of other people.”

“Yeah,” Rich muttered, fidgeting with his shirt. They were both quiet for another moment, when Rich stood up suddenly.

“I should probably go,” he said.

“Oh.” Jeremy said, looking down.

“No, it’s not you!” Rich said hurriedly, and Jeremy glanced back at him again. “My Dad just expects me to be home soon.”

“He’s not picking you up?” Jeremy asked.

“It’s, uh… not Thursday?” Rich joked. “It’s fine, it’s nice outside, and I like to walk.”

“You sure?” Jeremy asked. “I can probably get Dad to give you a ride.”

Rich checked his phone. “No… I need to walk if I’m leaving now. It’s fine. I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”

“Tomorrow. Yeah.” Jeremy bit his lip, trying to figure out if there was a time he could sneak away to meet Rich. Michael was talking with Emery during lunch about planning the next big party. Jeremy wasn’t entirely sure when or why that had become so important, but it meant he could go where he wished during the lunch period. “You want to meet in the library during lunch?”

“How do you already know me so well, Jeremy?” Rich asked, grinning at him.

Jeremy grinned back, and Rich waved as he left the room.

…

Jeremy had never spent lunch in the library before, but it ended up being surprisingly nice. It was very rare that anyone in the school actually came in there, so they had the entire library to themselves except for the librarian.

They picked a table in the middle of the room and spent most of the lunch talking, and the rest of it looking at books in the classic section that Rich stacked on the table for Jeremy to read. They got so carried away that Jeremy didn’t even notice what time it was until the lunch bell rang.

“Shit,” he said, slamming the book they were currently looking at closed.

“What?” Rich asked, glancing up at him.

“No, nothing, I— I have to meet Mich— my best friend at his locker before class I’m sorry, I— I gotta go!”

“Wait, you’re worried about being late for your locker meet-up?” Rich called after Jeremy as he was already running out of the library.

Thankfully, he managed to somehow make it to Michael’s locker before he showed up, but not by much, because as soon as Jeremy got there Michael walked around the corner.

“Hey.” Michael opened his locker and put his lunch inside. “You’re not bringing your stuff to class?”

“Uh… no.”

Michael gave him a look. “Alright. I guess there’s not much you could do to make your grades worse at this point.”

“I have low Bs.” Jeremy muttered.

“And that is literally the worst in the entire school, Jeremy,” Michael said, patting his shoulder in a way that almost felt comforting.

Jeremy laughed awkwardly. “Yeah,” he muttered, starting to pick at his shirt. He did so for about two seconds before Michael yanked his arm away.

“Stop that, it looks weird. Come on, we’re going to be late for class.” He let go of his arm, and Jeremy followed him down the hall towards their English class.

He grabbed a piece of notebook paper from the scrap pile at the front of the room before class started and took notes on that. He could add it to his notebook later, or if he needed help, he could always ask Rich.

It wasn’t until Free Period that Jeremy’s day changed from what he’d been expecting, when Rich texted him.

Rich: Hey, do you want to come over tonight? I have some more books I can show you.

Jeremy: I’m sorry, I can’t. I have to catch up on work in english

Rich: Well, I can help with that.

Shit, that’s right. Jeremy bit his lip and tried to come up with some other excuse, but Michael was walking over from the other side of the theatre and he had to say something fast.

Jeremy: How about you come over to my house instead?

Fuck fuck shit fuck why did he do that?

Jeremy shoved his phone in his pocket as Michael appeared above him. “What were you looking at?”

“Nothing,” Jeremy said quickly, knowing that he was a horrible liar.

Michael raised an eyebrow, and Jeremy shoved his hands in his lap in the hope that Michael wouldn’t notice their shaking. There was about three seconds of terrifying silence before Michael shrugged. “Whatever.” He sat down next to Jeremy. “Hey, I’m coming over tonight.”

“Tonight?” Jeremy choked out, trying and horrendously failing to keep his voice from shaking.

Michael leveled a glare at him. “Is that a problem?”

“Of course not.” Jeremy said, ducking his head in a way that hopefully showed submission but also got Michael to stop looking at his face.

“Great. So I’ll see you at seven?”

“Yep. That’s perfect.”

“Awesome.” Michael said, hopping up again before walking off.

Jeremy swallowed and turned back to his phone.

Jeremy: Is it okay if you just come with me after school?

Rich: Yeah, sure. Is your dad picking you up?

…

Rich was a problem. Not in the sense that Jeremy didn’t like him, in fact, quite the opposite. Rich gave Jeremy something that he hadn’t experienced in years, which was that he made Jeremy feel safe enough that he could let his guard down. He was both grateful and surprised, because it felt nice, but it also made it feel like Jeremy had known Rich for much longer than four days.

And it was also a problem when Michael was coming over that evening and Rich made Jeremy forget what time it was. They played World of Warcraft for a couple hours, talked about the English homework Jeremy had to finish, and then ended up watching a movie when Paul called up the steps that Michael was there.

Jeremy paled. “What time is it?” he asked, turning to Rich.

“Huh? Uh… 7:03?”

Jeremy stood up and walked over towards his door before slowly shutting it. “Rich,” he said quietly. “You need to leave. Can you climb out the window?”

Rich stared at him. “What?”

“Or hide in the closet? No, that won’t work, you’d be stuck in there for— fuck. Can you climb out the window?”

“Why do I need to leave?”

“We don’t have time! Can you just—”

“Hey, Jeremy!” came Michael’s voice as he started up the steps. “Are you in your room?”

“Oh God.” Jeremy walked away from the door.

“Jeremy, what’s wrong?”

“Well,” Jeremy said quietly. “Let me start by saying that I am not really best friends with Mitch McConnell.”

Michael opened the bedroom door and took in the scene in front of him before turning to Jeremy. “Who’s this?” he asked.

Jeremy swallowed and tried to come up with something to say. Michael didn’t look particularly angry, but that didn’t mean much.

Before he could come up with something, Rich stepped forward in front of Jeremy. “I’m Rich,” he said. Jeremy heard something else in his voice that he couldn’t identify. “You must be Jeremy’s best friend. He’s mentioned you a lot.”

“Oh, has he?” Michael asked, smiling. “I wish I could say the same.”

Jeremy took a step back.

“But it’s nice to meet you.” Michael continued, stepping forward again. “I’m Michael. Sorry I interrupted. Jeremy and I had planned on me coming over tonight.”

“Oh, you’re fine.” Rich said. “I was going to head out, but it turns out my dad can’t make it right now, so it might be a little longer. Sorry about that, Jeremy.” Rich turned back to face him.

Jeremy found his voice. “That’s… that’s okay, Rich. We can give you a ride home later.”

Rich smiled gratefully. “Awesome. Thanks. So I guess if we’re all stuck here together now, what do we want to do?”

…

Rich ended up leaving at the same time as Michael, meaning Jeremy didn’t face the consequences of his actions that night. He wasn’t entirely sure if Rich’s dad actually had been unable to make it or if Rich had some semblance of an idea as to what was going on.

It didn’t end up mattering in the long run, because Michael appeared the next morning to drive Jeremy to school.

“So how long did you think you’d be able to keep this from me?” he asked as they pulled out of the driveway.

Jeremy’s mouth flopped like a fish for a couple of seconds before he managed to get out, “I—”

“You actually thought you could.” Michael raised an eyebrow. “You actually thought you could hide this from me?”

“No, I—”

“Jeremy, I’ve already told you that everyone regrets being friends with you. You’re lucky I keep you around.”

“I know,” Jeremy said softly.

“So what are you trying to do with Rich? He’ll get tired of you sooner rather than later. Don’t you think you should quit while you’re ahead?”

Jeremy curled his arms around himself and looked out of the window. Maybe Michael had a point. Wouldn’t it be better if he left Rich with fond memories of him, rather than fucking something else up? He just— he liked Rich. He wanted Rich to like him too. He had thought maybe he did. But Michael was right in that there was no telling how long that would last.

“I know,” he said again.

“Great, so we’re in agreement then. You’ll stop trying to talk to Rich?”

Jeremy nodded and leaned his head on the window, hoping the heat from the sun or maybe the pressure would help the headache that was forming.

“There you go,” Michael said, nudging him with his arm. “I knew you’d make the right decision.”

Jeremy said nothing and squeezed his eyes shut.

He didn’t see Rich for most of the morning, which he supposed was a good thing, because he didn’t know if his resolve would be able to last if he actually saw him in the hallway. But to his surprise, Rich did text him close to lunch time.

Rich: Hey, are you okay? Do you want to meet in the library again?

Jeremy stood in front of his locker for a minute, staring at the text and trying to figure out how to respond, when Michael appeared next to him. “Hey, what are you doing?”

“Nothing.” Jeremy said, turning his phone off. He was about to put it away when Michael snatched the phone from his hand.

“Wha— hey.”

“You were texting Rich again.”

“No, I— I wasn’t going to respond.”

Michael sighed. “Jeremy. We talked about this.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“You know what, I have an idea.” Michael slid Jeremy’s phone into his pocket. “How about I hang on to this for a while, just to make sure you don't slip up?”

Jeremy almost protested, because more than RIch, how was he going to call his dad, or even Michael himself for that matter?

Michael raised an eyebrow at him. “Is that a problem?”

“Well— no. No, it’s— fine. It’s fine.”

“Good. So, lunch then?”

“Lunch.” Jeremy muttered, turning to pull out his lunchbox from his locker.

They sat with Jackson and Emery during lunch, and they were talking about something that seemed to be of big importance, but Jeremy was finding it hard to do much other than eat his lunch and try not to start crying, so he didn’t really catch much of what they were saying.

In fact, that was the general tone for most of the day. He had to try harder than usual to focus on what the teachers were saying in all his classes, and he felt fairly certain that wasn’t going to help his grades from being too low already.

Jeremy sat in the back of the theatre during Free Period and, as the universe seemed to want to head back to what was normal, Michael spent the whole time on the other side of the room, and Jeremy sat in the back and tried to look over his awful notes while wishing he had his phone.

Michael walked towards the back of the room right as the final bell was about to ring, as he was looking at Jeremy’s phone. “Hey, I texted your dad that I’m driving you home today, alright? And can I stay at your house tonight? My moms are being weird and I need a break from them.”

“Oh. Um, okay.” Jeremy said, followed by the bell ringing a couple seconds later. Jeremy stood and headed for his locker as Michael went towards his own with a call of “Meet you at my car!”

Jeremy grabbed his stuff and started for the front of the school when he noticed Rich waving at him from what must have been his locker. He looked like he was trying to wave Jeremy over.

He ducked his head and walked out the front door.

Michael was waiting by his car, and Jeremy waited until he unlocked it and climbed in without a word. He just wanted to go home and nap. Not likely to happen with Michael there.

He ended up being wrong about that, however, because they got to Jeremy’s house in around ten minutes and then Michael took one look at him and told him to go take a nap. He’d stay down here and work on some homework until he woke up.

“Okay,” Jeremy murmured, already rubbing his eyes. “Dad went to the office today, he should be back for dinner.”

“Got it,” Michael said, and with that, Jeremy vanished upstairs.

He waited about five minutes to make sure Michael wasn’t going to come upstairs before opening his World of Warcraft account and finding Rich’s to message him.

Player Two: Sorry about school

Rich responded almost instantly.

ShakespeareWasANerd: It’s okay. Why aren’t you answering your phone?

Player Two: Michael has it

ShakespeareWasANerd: Michael took your phone?

Player Two: Sorry

ShakespeareWasANerd: It’s not your fault, Jeremy.

Player Two: …

Player Two: You’re username sucks

ShakespeareWasANerd: Shut the fuck up, no it doesn’t.

ShakespeareWasANerd: And in that particular instance, it’s “your.”

Player Two: Shakespeare was not a nerd

ShakespeareWasANerd: Why don’t you read A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and then try to correct me. That play is peak nerdiness. It’s a bunch of stupid misunderstandings that end up with two groups of people in love being sad, and a queen in love with a man who has the face of a donkey.

Player Two: Shakespeare was a writer from a time when writing wasn’t even the slightest bit nerdy. Your username is inaccurate and sucks.

ShakespeareWasANerd: I told you that. You listen to me when I talk about Shakespeare! Also, this coming from someone who has the most boring username of all time.

Player Two: It is not!

ShakespeareWasANerd: Yes it is.

Jeremy was about to start a very heated reply when he heard Michael yell from downstairs. He couldn’t make out the words, but it was suddenly harder to focus on the computer.

He took a deep breath, stood up, and started slowly for his door, because if Michael had yelled his name and he didn’t show up, that wouldn’t end well.

He made it to the bottom of the stairs before Michael spoke again, and this time he could make out what he was saying.

“…No.”

There was a pause.

“I said  _ no! _ No, I will  _ not _ be giving Rich a Squip! No one is going to touch him, and Jeremy is absolutely allowed to be friends with him! And if you have a problem with that, you—”

“Uh, Michael?”

Michael froze from where he seemed to be yelling at an empty corner and whirled around to see Jeremy was now standing at the entrance to the living room.

“Are you… talking to yourself?”

Michael blinked at Jeremy a couple times before glaring at him. “None of your fucking buisness!” he snapped, and Jeremy jerked backwards, grabbing onto the railing by the steps. “I thought you were asleep, Jeremy!”

“Well you— you were— um— yelling so—”

“And again, none of your  _ fucking _ buisness!”

“Sorry,” Jeremy whimpered, backing up a couple steps before turning and sprinting up the rest of them and back to his room, then diving into his bed and grabbing his pillow like a lifeline. He felt like a little kid, but he needed something to hold onto.

Michael didn’t seem to be rushing up the steps after him though, and Jeremy was only drawn from his terrified stupor five minutes later by another soft chime on his computer.

He climbed off his bed with shaking legs and walked over to his laptop.

ShakespeareWasANerd: Jeremy? You’ve been typing for a long time, are you okay?

Jeremy tried to calm the racing thoughts in his head to come up with something to say to Rich before his hands started typing of almost of their own volition.

Player Two: Um

Player Two: Do you know what a Squip is?


	4. Chapter 4

“I’m telling you Jeremy, you misheard him or something,” Rich said, clicking the tab closed on the computer. “We cannot find shit on this thing.”

“No, I heard him right.” Jeremy said. “Squip. Maybe try it with two ‘p’s?”

“Jeremy, I’m telling you, it doesn’t exist.” Rich pushed the chair back and turned to face him.

Despite the fact that Michael had kept Jeremy from going anywhere near the library all week, and he had Jeremy’s phone, he still had video game club on Thursday, which Rich now had too. So when Rich showed up, they started doing research on the “Squip” Michael had been yelling about on Tuesday.

“Then why was Michael yelling about it? He clearly didn’t think I would hear him.”

“Why does Michael do anything?” Rich asked, throwing his hands up. “Why are you so hung up on it?”

Jeremy hesitated. After a second, Rich lowered his hands again and looked at Jeremy more seriously. “Jeremy, why are you so hung up on it?”

“What do you think about Michael?” Jeremy asked.

Rich bit his lip. “Do you want an honest answer?”

Jeremy nodded.

“I think he’s a terrible loser and you should ditch him.”

“He’s not a loser.” Jeremy said.

“You should still ditch him.”

Jeremy sighed. “Look, Michael…” he hesitated. “He never really… makes me happy. But it didn’t used to be like that. It used to be great being friends with him. And sometimes I get the sense that— that he’s miserable just like me.”

“So… you’re looking for an explanation as to why he changed.”

Jeremy nodded.

“There might not be one.”

“I know that.”

Rich was quiet for a moment. “Why did you decide to be friends with me, Jeremy?”

“What do you mean?”

“Did you think Michael wouldn’t notice?”

“Well… no.”

“Did you think he wouldn’t care?”

“No.”

“So why did you do it?”

Jeremy bit his lip. “I like you more than him?” he said. “Or, no, not more, just… you  _ do _ make me happy. I like being around you. I didn’t really expect that, but once I had it, I didn’t want to give it up.” Jeremy crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “But everyone regrets being friends with me eventually, so.”

“Oh, they do? Where did you hear that?”

Jeremy said nothing, and in the silence he supposed he answered well enough.

“Yeah, exactly.”

“Did you guess?” Jeremy murmured. “About Michael?”

“Yeah.”

“How?”

“My dad.”

Jeremy paused and looked up at Rich, who was now looking down at his shoes and fidgeting with his hands. “Oh,” he said softly. “I’m sorry, Rich.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“I know, I just… I don’t know. If you ever need a place to stay, or something, you can stay at my house.”

Rich smiled a little up at Jeremy. “Thanks. But, back to your squids thing.”

“Squip.”

“Right. It sounds like a bullshit thing said by a terrible person that you should really not be focusing on. But if this is really that important to you… I guess I’ll keep researching. I can ask my brother, and we can look at some other things on the internet.” Rich grinned. “Do you want to try Yahoo Answers?”

“Okay, shut up. But… thanks.” Jeremy leaned forward and wrapped Rich in a hug, who returned it much more quickly than Jeremy was expecting.

“Uh, yeah,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck once they pulled away. “Are we still on for Warcraft tonight?”

“Yep.” Jeremy said, nodding and smiling a little.

They both stood and walked towards the front doors of the school, where Paul was waiting with his car, and Rich’s dad wasn’t. Jeremy glanced over at him. “Does your dad actually pick you up?”

“Uh…”

“Do you need a ride?”

“No, he wants me to be home at a certain time, and if we drove I would be there too fast.”

Jeremy bit his lip. “Are you sure? You can come home with me and I’ll take you there.”

“I’ll be fine, Jeremy. I’ll see you tonight.”

Jeremy hesitated, before finally nodding a little. “Okay.”

He walked over and climbed into the car, and tried to puzzle out all of his racing thoughts about Rich, and Michael, and these “Squip” things.

“So, how was school?”

Jeremy glanced over at Paul. “Enlightening,” he said.

“Oh? That’s good, I suppose.”

“I’m not sure yet.”

“What?”

Jeremy shook himself a little. “Nothing. Can we go home? I need to do some work on a project.”

…

Michael had deleted his World of Warcraft account.

Okay, well, to be fair, there was no way Jeremy could pin this on Michael directly. You know, except for the fact that he was the only one aside from Rich who even knew Jeremy had a Warcraft account, and the fact that it was Rich and Jeremy’s only current form of communication which made it pretty unlikely that Rich would have been the one to delete it.

But as Jeremy was mourning the loss of both Rich and the fact that he would now have to  _ start over with everything,  _ he remembered that they were actually supposed to talk that night about Squips.

Well, that timing didn’t exactly disprove his theory that Michael had one.

Jeremy made a new account, a starter until he could come up with a believable lie to his dad about why he needed to ask him to buy a new one, all while trying to calm himself down because actually what the fuck, Michael.

Player 2.0: Hey Rich this is Jeremy. Michael deleted my account which kind of adds fuel to the fire that I’m getting somewhere with this Squip thing. Also my username is taken now which I’m really fucking pissed about but whatever.

Jeremy glared away and crossed his arms as an external sign of his anger before, to his surprise, the computer chimed in response.

WickedTough: Okay, woah. First of all, wrong user, but also, stay the fuck away from Squips.

Jeremy paused, looking at the person he was messaging and realizing it was in fact not Rich, but one of his other friends from this game. He’d tried to add all the ones he remembered when he made his new account.

Player 2.0: Oh shit, sorry dude. But you know about them?

WickedTough: My brother took one. He went from a straight D student to a freshman at Harvard. But then he tried to get it out and it literally drove him crazy. He’s in a mental hospital now.

Player 2.0: Oh my God. I’m sorry, that’s awful. But I wasn’t going to take one, I think my best friend has one. I’m trying to figure out how to help him, or even if I should.

WickedTough: Mountain Dew Red gets rid of them. Not Code Red, the stuff from the 90s.

Player 2.0: I didn’t know that was a real thing. You’re saying I get rid of them with old soda?

WickedTough: That’s the only way I’ve heard of. But it was discontinued, I have no idea where you would get it now. Also, if you’re wondering,  _ help him. _ These things are fucked up, you can’t leave someone with one.

Player 2.0: Uh, got it. But seriously, Mountain Dew Red?

WickedTough: Yeah. Mountain Dew turns it on, Mountain Dew Red turns it off. No idea what the other flavors do.

Player 2.0: How much do you know about them?

WickedTough: Not as much as I’d like to, honestly. They’re from Japan, some kind of super advanced supercomputer. They can do fucked up stuff like shocking and mind control and shit. Mountain Dew turns them on and Mountain Dew Red turns them off, but other than that…

Player 2.0: Could they force someone to do something?

WickedTough: I mean like I said, they can do mind control shit, but if you mean, like, against their will or without their permission? I don’t know.

Jeremy bit his lip. He needed to get out of this conversation pretty soon in case Michael somehow found this account too. But first he needed to find a way to talk to Rich. Ideally also in a way that Michael wouldn’t be able to detect. Face-to-face would be nice. And soon.

Player 2.0: Okay, thanks. I need to go.

WickedTough: Good luck. Let me know what you do.

Player 2.0: I will.

Jeremy hopped up and jogged downstairs. “Hey, Dad, can you drive me back to school?”

“What?” Paul turned to face him with a confused look on his face.

“Please?”

“Oh gee kiddo, I don’t know if I’m really up for leaving the house again.”

“Okay, then can I take the car?”

“You don’t have your license.”

“I have my permit. Please, Dad, it’s important.”

Paul looked like he was weighing the options before he finally sighed. “I don’t know, Jeremy… how far of a walk is it?”

“Oh Jesus, fine!” Jeremy snapped, turning to run back up the steps and grabbing his shoes. No one was in the living room anymore, so Jeremy grabbed the keys on the hook above the door ran out to the car.

Five minutes of an absolutely terrifying drive later he was almost to the school, and thankfully, when he pulled up Rich was still sitting on his phone outside.

“Rich!” Jeremy called, throwing the car door open and getting out.

Rich jumped and looked up. “Jeremy? What are you doing back here?”

“I need to talk to you. You are not going to believe what I just found out.” He gestured back to the car. “Come with me?”

Rich stood. “Did you drive yourself here? You have your license?”

“Uh not… exactly. Just come on?”

Rich’s eyes widened before he sighed and reached down to grab his bag. “Well, okay. As long as I get home close to 5:30. And as long as you don’t kill me on the way there.”

They got back home about five minutes after that and Jeremy dragged Rich up to his room, managing to avoid Paul. He showed him the conversation left on the computer, and then logged out, as they couldn’t risk anyone seeing it.

“Holy shit.” Rich said, sitting on Jeremy’s bed. “That’s… that’s a real thing. You’re telling me Squips are a  _ real _ thing.”

Jeremy nodded. “And I think it’s more than that. Rich, I think… I think more people have these things than just Michael.”

Rich stared at him. “What? No. No way, Jeremy— no way. What could possibly make you think that?”

“Okay, well.” Jeremy said. “Do you know that club that meets in the lunchroom sometimes?”

Rich nodded.

“Do you know anyone that isn’t in that club aside from the two of us?”

“Well yeah, there’s… uh… there’s…” Rich bit his lip and looked up in thought. “Do the teachers count?”

“Not really. I think that club has something to do with Squips. And there’s Jackson and Emery. Michael talks to them at the same time every day. Sometimes more than once, but he almost always spends all of Free Period with them. I think they’re like, his second in command, or something, and that’s when they meet. And have you noticed how literally everyone in the school gets perfect grades all the time except us? Supercomputers would probably help with that.”

“I don’t know, Jeremy.” Rich said. “That sounds like a stretch.”

“Well, I know a way we can find out for sure.”

“What?”

“We’re gonna need time to find this Mountain Dew Red stuff anyway, so in order to both find out for sure and give ourselves time to figure stuff out, we need to make it look like this was too big or too scary or something, and so we gave up.”

Rich’s eyes widened as he seemed to be processing. “Oh, holy shit. We’re really considering this.” He looked hesitantly back at Jeremy. “Okay, what do you have in mind?”

“How do you feel about being a getaway driver tomorrow night?”

…

Jeremy didn’t bother trying to sneak into the party. If everyone there really did have a Squips that told them all about him, it was a lost cause, and it was also unnecessary anyway.

So Jeremy pushed the front door open an hour late, walked into a crowd of people who likely knew exactly who he was, and yelled into the room,  _ “I need to talk to Michael!” _

Everyone turned to look at him in surprise. Jeremy looked around at everyone, who was staring back at him. As he did so, people appeared from the kitchen, walked down the steps, and came out of closed rooms. The music in the house stopped, and Jeremy swallowed, trying to ignore the anxiety that came with everyone in the room looking at him.

On second thought, maybe yelling at the entire house hadn’t been the best idea.

Finally, Michael appeared on the stairs. “Jeremy? What the fuck are you doing?”

“We need to talk.” Jeremy said. “Alone.”

Michael looked around at everyone else, before sighing irritably. “Come on,” he said, gesturing up the steps. Jeremy followed him, still trying to ignore everyone else staring, and they both headed into a bathroom. Michael waved everyone else off before coming in and locking the door after them.

He turned to face Jeremy. “Where have you been? You said you had a ride, and then you don’t show up here until an hour after the party starts?”

Jeremy took a shaky breath and tried to ignore the instinct to run. “Michael, you know why I’m here.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Are we just going to ignore the elephant in the room?”

“I can’t imagine what you’re referring to.”

“I know about the Squips, Michael. I know you have one, and everyone else does too.”

“What’s your point?”

Okay, confirmation. Nice.

“What’s  _ your _ point? Michael, those things are dangerous! You can’t just go spreading them around!”

“I’m sorry, I forgot the part where I asked your opinion.” Michael said, advancing across the bathroom as Jeremy backed up a couple steps.

“Michael—” Jeremy took a breath to try and calm himself down. “Michael, I talked to this guy on Warcraft, and thanks again for deleting my account by the way, but he said his brother—”

“Yeah, yeah, mental hospital guy. We all know the story.”

That threw Jeremy for a loop. “You— you  _ know? _ And— you’re  _ okay _ with it?”

“Of course. That guy fucked up when he tried to get rid of his Squip. Why would I ever want that?”

“Wha—” Jeremy stared. “Michael, that’s insane.”

Michael’s gaze darkened, and Jeremy realized he’d said the wrong thing.

“I’m sorry, I forget again.” Michael leapt forward, grabbed Jeremy’s arms, and turned and slammed him against the wall, knocking the wind out of him. _“Where exactly did I ask for your opinion?”_

Jeremy tried to focus on what he came here to do, which was hard with Michael in his face like that, not to mention the fact that he was now struggling to breathe. “You— you can’t—”

Before he could finish, he was whirled around and shoved towards the back of the bathroom. He slipped and landed head-first on the bathtub.

Woah, dizzy.

He pushed himself up with shaking arms and used the toilet as a crutch to get to his feet. “Mi— Michael,” he got out, turning, “I’m trying to  _ help _ you.”

Michael stood over him with his arms crossed casually. “I don’t want it. Now are you going to stop being an annoying pest and let me enjoy the party?” He turned and started slowly walking away.

Jeremy shoved himself up and managed to wiggle his way around Michael to stand in front of the door just as he arrived at it. “Michael, I’m not done.”

Michael’s gaze darkened again, and Jeremy nearly bolted. “Jeremy, move it.” he said.

Suddenly, in a move that Jeremy was sure was surprising to both of them, he laughed. He spread his arms in slight amazement. “Or you’ll what?” he asked. He dropped his arms to his sides.

Michael clenched his hands into fists. “Move.”

Okay, time to sell it.

Jeremy gave a deep sigh. “You know what, Michael? Fine. You want to trust an obviously evil supercomputer? You go for it. Because I am done. I am done with this, I am done with you, I am done with being hurt and scared all the time, just— just stay the  _ fuck _ away from me!”

He turned and stormed out of the bathroom, heading straight to the front door and hoping that was enough.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The warnings that apply for this chapter are Emotional/Psychological Abuse and Verbal Abuse.

Jackson was baffled when Michael explained it to him. “Jeremy doesn’t want a Squip? I don’t understand. Squips— they do nothing but help you. Maybe if we try explaining it to him again—”

“No, Jackson.” Michael cut him off. “We need to focus on the plan.”

_ ™. _

**Michael,** the Squip said with a dangerously low voice.

“Jeremy is a lost cause. Besides, if we don’t have to worry about him or Richard Goranski, we can move on to the next stage as soon as the Squips arrive.”

“I guess,” Jackson muttered, looking unsure. “I just… I hate to leave them so lost if they don’t even know it.”

“We can always go back to them later if necessary. For now we should focus on the next stage.”

Jackson nodded slowly. “Yeah… yeah, I guess you’re right.”

_ Christ, how much has Jackson bought into this shit? _

**Michael, you need to check yourself.**

_ Before I wreck myself. _

**_Michael._ **

Michael felt like laughing. Despite all of the Squips threats, he was in a better mood than he had been in for years. Jeremy had left, meaning Michael wouldn’t hurt him ever again. Jeremy had done himself what Michael should have done years ago, and Michael had never been more proud of his best friend. And he wasn’t even alone! He had Rich too.

**Don’t get comfortable with it. We are going to be squipping Jeremy at the soonest available opportunity.**

_ Yeah, except now he knows about Squips. I doubt he’ll go quietly. _

**You didn’t go quietly. And look at how… cooperative you are now.**

Michael’s grin faded a little bit, because it had a point. But that didn’t change the fact that Jeremy was safe, at least for the time being. And that he had a chance of being happy with Rich. That was… better. Sure, he was still miserable, but now at least Jeremy wasn’t. Why would he be? He was finally away from him.

The Squip was being quite insistent on starting the next stage of The Plan™ once the new Squips got there. Emery still wasn’t sure what was causing the delay, but Michael wasn’t complaining.

One thing that did change was that Michael was now apparently going to be working much closer with the school’s three managers, Madeline, Chloe, and Jake. They met up at lunch the following Monday, along with Jackson and Emery.

**You are going to hear some things you don’t like in this meeting.**

_ Why would that surprise me? _

**It shouldn’t. I am simply informing you of this because you are not going to say anything against them.**

Michael sighed.  _ Yeah, whatever. Fine. _

He sat down and the other five people at the table turned to face him.

“Hey, Michael. What took you so long?” Jackson said with a grin.

Everyone else instantly turned to stare at Jackson in shock, but Jackson just continued happily smiling as he took a bite out of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Michael almost smiled. Despite the fact that he was one of the main people helping to spread Squips, and of his own free will, Jackson was just so earnest and goofy all the time that it was impossible for Michael to hate him. If there was any chance that Jackson would understand why his Squip would be telling him to do so, it would likely have shut him up a long time ago.

Michael didn’t respond to Jackson’s comment, instead just sitting and glancing over at Chloe, who was really the head of the three managers. “Chloe.”

Chloe swallowed. “Michael. Sir. Hello.”

**Sit back and observe for now. You will not be adding input unless it is necessary.**

Emery cleared her throat and pulled a set of papers out of her backpack. “There is still no word about the new Squip supply.”

**Is she pushing them about it?**

“Are you pushing them about it?” Michael asked.

Emery looked over at him, fear filling her gaze. “Um, yes sir. I really don’t know why they’re not getting them to us faster. I’ve been being as firm as I can.”

“She has, sir.” Jake said quietly. “I go with her every time she talks to these people. I don’t know why they’re taking so long.”

**Did you ask for him to defend her?**

“Did I ask for you to defend her?” Michael asked. “If Emery’s not delivering it’s her problem, not yours.”

Jake backed off with a quiet “Sorry, sir,” before Michael turned back to Emery.

“You ask them every single day?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

Emery nodded hurriedly, handing one of the papers to Michael. “Every day after school.”

Michael looked down at the paper, which confirmed Emery’s statement. Michael sighed irritably. “Well, tell them to get their asses in gear, I don’t have all the time in the world.”

“Yes, sir,” Emery said quickly, taking the paper back.

“So,” Chloe said, swallowing. “There’s an elephant in the room that we need to acknowledge.”

Michael flinched inwardly. “What elephant?” he growled.

Chloe jumped a little and slid back as much as she could on the bench. “I was talking about Jeremy, sir,” she said quickly. “We need to talk about what we’re going to do about the current situation.”

“Well, according to my Squip,” Jackson jumped in happily, clearly not sensing the tension. “Jeremy’s chances of actually doing something to try and stop us are about 1%. And if he does, the chances of him actually succeeding are even smaller. So I’m not sure how much needs to be done at the current moment.”

“That’s a good point. We might be wasting resources if we try that hard to stop a practically nonexistent threat.” Madeline said. “Jenna is watching them, that might be enough. And we should really be focusing on why the Squips are so far behind in arrival.”

_ Are you not going to say anything? _

**Why would I? I agree with this decision.**

“So it’s settled then. We have Jenna keep tabs, but don’t intervene if it’s not necessary.” Jackson said, smiling as he wrote something down. “Is there anything else we needed to cover today?”

The table was silent for a moment before everyone looked at Michael.

“Excellent.” Michael stood. “In that case, I have other important matters to attend to.”

He made it to the bathroom and into a stall before practically collapsing. _ That was exhausting. _

**It lasted barely ten minutes. You’re pathetic.**

_ Having people be scared of you is exhausting. _

**Jeremy has been scared of you for years, you should be used to it by now.**

Michael winced.  _ I know. I’m sorry. _

**At any rate, you will have to get used to it. You will be having these meetings everyday now that we are advancing with the plan.**

_ ™, _ Michael said weakly.

The Squip shocked him.  **Michael, this is not the time for humor.**

_ I’m sorry. _

**Get up. We really do have other things to do.**

Michael braced himself against the wall in preparation to get up and didn’t reply.

…

“Okay,” Rich said, plopping his stuff down at the table in the library. “I  _ think _ we can say that they don’t suspect us. I just partly overheard Michael having a conversation at a lunch table, and apparently they’re not going to do anything to try and stop us because they’re basing it all on how likely we are to do anything in the first place and— are you okay?”

Jeremy slowly dragged his head up from the table. “So. Fucking. Tired.” He slammed his head down again.

“Oh. Sorry. Do you want to do this another time?”

“I don’t know, I— I just— fuck, I don’t know.” Jeremy picked up his head again and dragged his hands through it. “Why am I so tired?”

“Well,” Rich said slowly. “You did just end an abusive relationship. That probably takes a lot out of you.”

“Michael? What are you talking about, that wasn’t…” Jeremy yawned. “That wasn’t abusive.”

Rich bit his lip. “Jeremy…”

“It wasn’t.” Jeremy said, looking back at Rich.

Rich sighed. “Okay. I’m not going to force you or anything. But if you’re too tired to do this now, we can wait a few days.”

“No, we need to do this.” Jeremy said, trying to push himself up. It didn’t work very well, as his arms all but fell out from underneath him. He groaned.

“Yeah, no way. Come on, there’s some couches in the back of the library, you’re napping.”

Jeremy didn’t have any more energy to fight Rich as he helped him up and towards the couch, which Jeremy practically collapsed on.

He fell asleep almost instantly, but it felt like five seconds later when Rich shook him awake. “Lunch is over,” he said.

“Oh fuck, okay,” Jeremy mumbled, pushing himself up. He shifted to lean back against the couch.

“Rich,” he said quietly. “Michael’s in this class. What am I supposed to say to him?”

“Let’s stay here,” Rich said instantly. “You have English, right? Get the assignments after school and I’ll help you.”

“Are you sure?” Jeremy asked.

“Positive. Do you have any other classes with him?”

“I mean, just Free Period. But I don’t know how plausible it is that we can avoid Michael completely while we’re figuring this out.”

“It’s plausible if I say it is, dammit. Besides, you need to stay away from Michael for multiple reasons right now.”

“No, really just the one. And actually, do you really think avoiding him completely is necessary—”

“If you’re skipping English you can go back to sleep.”

“Goodnight.” Jeremy said, collapsing back on the couch.

…

They both ended up in the computer lab for Free Period after Jeremy got his English work, and during that time they did actually manage to get some things done. Jeremy talked to the same person from World of Warcraft and tried to gage if he had any idea of where to start looking for Mountain Dew Red. Rich said his older brother had agreed to help, and he was really good at researching stuff like this.

They went and got their stuff from their lockers a couple minutes before the bell rang and went back to the computer lab, planning to stay there until after everyone else left.

Finally, they both headed out front to find Paul sitting there in the car.

“Jeremy!” he said, climbing out. He looked a little ticked off. “I’ve been texting you for ten minutes, what took you so long?”

“Oh, yeah…” Jeremy realized. “Um, sorry Dad… Michael has my phone.”

“What? Why would Michael have your phone?”

He shared a glance with Rich.

“You want me to come with you?” Rich asked quietly.

“Yeah,” Jeremy replied, just as quietly. “Thank you.”

They both walked forward towards the car, and Jeremy opened the front door before climbing in. “Dad, there’s something I need to tell you,” he said.

“What?”

“We should go home first.”

They made it home about five minutes later and all settled in the living room, where Jeremy hesitantly sat on the couch with Rich as Paul took the chair.

“Okay,” Jeremy said hesitantly. “Dad, you should know that Michael—”

“Is a terrible person.” Rich cut in.

Jeremy elbowed Rich in the side. “—Has this thing called a Squip,” he finished.

He spent the next half hour or so explaining what he was talking about and what he thought had happened over the past few years, and watched Paul’s face go from obvious disbelief, to understanding that Jeremy wasn’t kidding, to horror.

“You were being treated this way and I didn’t even notice?” Paul asked quietly.

Jeremy blinked in surprise. That wasn’t really where he had expected this conversation to go. “I mean— that wasn’t really my point— it’s not really a big deal,” he muttered.

“It is a huge deal, Jeremy.” Paul stood up and walked over, placing his hands on Jeremy’s shoulders. “It’s not okay and I should have done something to stop it. I should have been there. I’m sorry.” He opened his arms as an offer, and Jeremy hesitantly leaned in before he was wrapped in a hug.

Jeremy lasted about two seconds before he started tearing up, trying to remember the last time he’d gotten a hug from his dad.

“I’m going to be there from now on, okay?” Paul said when Jeremy started to cry. “I promise. I love you, Jeremy.”

Jeremy sniffed, and leaned further into the hug. He really wasn’t sure why everyone was making such a big deal out of the way Michael treated him, but it’s not like he was going to turn down a hug from his father.

When they both finally pulled back, Jeremy wiped his eyes. He was about to start explaining what their plan was when he noticed that Rich was gone from the spot on the couch next to them.

“Rich?” he called.

Rich appeared a couple seconds later from the kitchen. “Hey. That looked kind of like a private moment, so I wanted to give you some space.”

“Oh. Thanks,” Jeremy muttered, rubbing at his arm. “I was gonna say… anyway, we think we have something of a plan to defeat the Squips. We need, like, a  _ lot _ of Mountain Dew Red.”

“And a way to pay for it,” Rich added.

“Yeah, and a way to pay for it.”

“And we need to know where to get it.”

“Right, we also need to know where to get it.”

“So honestly, we really just have a theoretical plan to defeat the Squips.”

“That… that’s accurate, yeah, we have a theoretical plan.”

Paul glanced between the two of them before letting out a sigh. “Okay,” he said. “Well, I’ll pay for it, so you can consider that part of your plan solved.”

“Really?” Jeremy asked in surprise. “You want to help?”

“From the way you’re phrasing this, we seem to be three of the four people who know about this robot apocalypse who aren’t also controlled by one of the robots. Yes, I want to help.”

“That’s… wow, Dad, thank you.” Jeremy smiled gratefully up at him.

Paul nodded in response, along with his own smile. “Alright, while we’re looking for this soda, we should also get Jeremy a new phone.”

“Oh, you don’t have to.” Jeremy ducked his head. “It’s my own fault I lost it in the first place, you shouldn’t have to replace it.”

“Well, first of all, it’s definitely not your fault.” Rich said. “But you’re also going to need one to contact everyone, at the very least.”

Paul nodded. “He’s right. We’ll head out tonight and go get you a new one, okay?”

Jeremy swallowed. “Alright.”

“Oh, and Michael also deleted Jeremy’s World of Warcraft account.” Rich added. “So he needs a new one.”

“Rich!” Jeremy exclaimed, whirling to him.

“Of course.” Paul said with a nod.

Jeremy sighed and crossed his arms. “That’s not exactly high on our list of priorities,” he grumbled.

“No, but it’s something you enjoy, and that’s important too,” Paul said.

Jeremy sighed again. “Alright, but let’s really try to focus on the robot apocalypse that’s been mentioned a couple times throughout this conversation.”

“We will, Jeremy.” Rich said. “We’ve got this. We’re gonna take these fuckers down.”

Jeremy smiled at him. “Okay. You’re right. We can do this.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The warnings that apply for this chapter are Implied/Referenced Child Abuse.

Jeremy didn’t wake up to his alarm. When he opened his eyes it was to natural sunlight that was far too bright for the time he was supposed to wake up.

Then he remembered that for the past couple days he’d been woken up by Paul saying he was going to be late, because he didn't have his phone as an alarm. But now he had one, and he was sure he’d remember to set it.

Jeremy glanced at his phone to find it was almost ten in the morning.

He leapt out of his bed and ran from his room down the stairs to find Paul putting pancakes on the table.

“Fair warning,” he said. “I’m pretty sure I added too much flour.”

“Dad, why didn’t you wake me up!” Jeremy cried. “Why didn’t my alarm go off? I’m hours late for school!”

“Relax, Jeremy. You’ve been through a lot recently, so I decided I’d let you sleep.”

“I haven’t been through a lot!” Jeremy snapped. “And Rich can’t go to school alone, what if someone tries to Squip him?!”

“Rich said that the people in charge had pretty much decided to ignore you. And he can handle himself, he knows what to look for.”

“That’s not— no, Dad, you don’t get it!” Jeremy screamed, turning to storm back up the stairs. He went back to his room before collapsing on his bed.

Why the fuck did he do that? His Dad hadn’t done anything wrong, and it was actually really nice to be able to wake up and not have to worry about school for a day. What was his problem? Now he was probably pissed at him.

He stayed on his bed with his head buried in his pillow until there came a short knock on his door. “Jeremy?”

Jeremy grumbled into his pillow.

His door opened a second later. “Are you alright?”

Jeremy pushed himself up from his pillow. “I’m fine. I’m sorry. I just… I don’t know.”

“It’s alright. Do you want to come eat pancakes?”

“I want to be alone,” Jeremy said, almost snapping again.

“Okay,” Paul said, backing out of the room again and closed the door after him. Jeremy leaned into his pillow and screamed into it.

He rolled over and tried to calm the sudden anger that had seemed to come from nowhere. Rich would be fine. Probably. Most likely.

Jeremy grabbed his new phone from where it was charging on the nightstand and unplugged it. He opened his contacts, of which he now had two instead of three.

Jeremy: Hey I have a phone again. Dad let me sleep in so I’m not at school. Are you okay?

Rich responded not even five seconds later.

Rich: Yeah. Everyone is treating me like I don’t exist, which honestly I never thought I’d be grateful for, but here we are.

Jeremy: Are you sure?

Rich: Yes. You don’t need to worry, I’m fine.

Jeremy: I’m not worried

Jeremy threw his phone down on the other half of his bed. He wasn’t worried. He was fine. Why were they treating him like he was breakable?

Why was he suddenly so incredibly angry about everything? Luckily, Rich probably couldn’t read that tone from his text.

He collapsed back on his bed with a groan and decided to sleep for another three hours. All of the anger had worn him out again.

…

Rich hadn’t been lying to Jeremy. Everyone in the school, aside from the teachers whenever he like, had a question or something, seemed to be ignoring him entirely. It was weird and a little creepy. There were a couple times he could have sworn he saw someone watching him, but when he turned to look no one was there, so he chalked it up to how on edge he was.

He sat in the back of the room for each class and split his attention between the teacher and the rest of the students. Now that he actually was paying attention to them, he was starting to notice how… lifeless they looked. They took notes and focused during class, and joked with each other and played stupid games during lunch, but it was like it was all scripted. No doubt the fault of the computers that were apparently in all of their heads.

Honestly, he had no idea what to think about Squips actually being a real thing. At first he’d thought it had been some kind of bullshit abuse tactic by Michael. But then Michael, and more importantly, the outside source of Jeremy’s Warcraft friend had both confirmed it, so… yeah. In one week, Rich’s goal had gone from “Surviving High School” to “Stop the Goddamn Robot Apocalypse.” He could safely say he had never been more overwhelmed.

Well, okay, that wasn’t entirely true. Yes, stopping the robot apocalypse was up there as a goal, but Rich’s primary goal right now was to keep Jeremy away from Michael until he realized how fucked up their friendship was. Rich had experience with abuse, but he had known for years that his father was an abusive asshole, and was counting down the days until he could get the fuck out of there. Jeremy hadn’t even seemed to begin to realize that the things Michael did to him weren’t deserved. If it hadn’t been necessary to stop the Squips, Rich wasn’t sure he would have even left Michael in the first place.

Michael was an easy person to watch— stalk? Let’s go with observe. Rich had a surprising number of classes with him, and as he mentioned before, no one in the school seemed to be giving him the time of day anymore.

Part of what he observed was to be expected. Michael was a dick to everyone around him. He looked exactly like the kind of person you think of when you think “popular asshole.” But part of what he observed was weird. Michael flinched a lot when he thought no one was looking. Or was Rich just able to see that because the Squips had decided he didn’t matter? Whatever the case, he flinched a lot. And he looked… sad. Rich didn’t know what he had to be sad about. He took the Squip, didn’t he? Wasn’t this all his fault?

Rich had no idea where to start on understanding the giant robot army the school had become. Michael seemed to be the head, and those two people he constantly hung out with, Jackson and Emery, seemed to be his right hand people, but aside from that he didn’t have a clue. And possibly the most confusing part of all was why in the world they thought that he and Jeremy wouldn’t do anything. Did they think they’d learn about the Squips and just let everything happen? That was insane.

Matt texted him during lunch that he thought he might have had a lead, which was impressive even for him, but before Rich could get too excited he clarified that wasn’t sure how much the person he was talking to actually knew, and he was super closed off so Matt would have to try and gain his trust first.

Rich: So do you feel like you’re infiltrating a secret organization, or what?

Matt: More or less, yeah

Matt: Give me a few days and I’ll probably know something

Rich: Okay.

Matt: How is this working with Dad by the way

Rich winced. He had a feeling that question was coming.

Rich: He’s cool with it

Matt: You forgot the period Rich

Rich: Fine. He’s not cool with it.

Matt: How often are you at Jeremy’s house?

Rich bit his lip. Probably too often, but considering everything that was happening, Rich didn’t know if it was a good idea to end up at Jeremy’s house less. To be fair, it also wasn’t a good idea to go as much as he did… but he wasn't sure he had much of a choice in the matter.

Rich: I’ve got this, Matt. He’s barely noticed anything.

Matt: What does barely mean?

Rich: …

Rich: He might have figured out what was going on and found out where Jeremy lives.

Matt: Did you tell Jeremy?

Rich: I didn’t want him to worry about me.

Matt: If you need to get away for a few nights, I can cash one of my paychecks and you can get a hotel room

Rich: Matt, you need that money for school.

Matt: I can make it work

Rich: No, you can’t. I can do this, okay? I’m being careful. Besides, if it gets really bad, Jeremy’s already said I can crash at his place.

Matt: You’d be spending more time at his house, which would be the whole problem

Rich: Stop worrying. We all have enough to focus on with the looming Squipocalypse. And you have school to focus on too. I can handle myself.

Matt: Squipocalypse

Rich: See, I invented a new word. I shall be the next Shakespeare.

Matt: You shall be the world’s biggest nerd

Rich: You say that as if I’m not already there.

At that point, the bell rang and Rich stuck his phone in his pocket before heading out of the library.

The second half of the day passed very similarly to the first, with everyone ignoring him as he all but stalked them. By the end of the day, however, he’d seen enough of Chloe, Jake, and Madeline to be able to say that they were probably pretty high up on the totem pole, when he took into account the lunch conversation he’d overheard yesterday.

By the time school ended he just wanted to go anywhere aside from home and collapse for a few hours. He texted Jeremy asking if he should come over that afternoon, and got a surprisingly angry response.

Jeremy: Would everyone just leave me alone

Rich: Are you okay?

Jeremy: Peachy

Rich: Do you want to be alone?

Jeremy: No, sorry

Jeremy: Come over

Rich: Are you sure?

Jeremy: Yeah

Jeremy: I’m just pissed at the world today

Rich: Okay.

With that, Rich started the walk to Jeremy’s house, putting his phone away at the same time.

He got there after half an hour or so of walking, and knocked on the door. It was open a second later by Paul, who smiled a little awkwardly at him. “Hi, Rich. Just a heads up, Jeremy is a little… touchy today.”

“I’ve heard.” Rich said, smiling a little back.

He followed Paul inside, who headed into the kitchen while Rich put his bag by the door, and returned with an apple. “I’m assuming you haven’t eaten yet.”

“Uh, no. Thanks.” Rich said, taking the apple. He waved a little to Paul as he started up the steps towards Jeremy’s room.

He took a bite as he opened Jeremy’s door. “Hey, Jeremy,” he said, walking in. “What’s up?”

“Nothing,” Jeremy snapped into his pillow from where he was laying on his bed.

“Angry at the world, huh?”

“No. Shut up.” Jeremy turned away and faced the wall before grumbling out a “Sorry.”

“It’s good.” Rich said, sitting in the chair in front of Jeremy’s desk. “Honestly, the situations we’re dealing with are enough to deserve a little world-anger.”

“I’m angry and tired.” Jeremy muttered.

“Well, you should take a nap.”

“I slept for more than nine hours, and then another three. I shouldn’t be tired.”

“Again, we’re all dealing with a lot.”

“I’m not dealing with a lot,” Jeremy protested instantly, like he expected Rich to say that.

Rich wanted to groan, or sigh, or throw his hands up in the air. Some kind of outward sign of exasperation. But that definitely wouldn’t help the situation.

Instead, he faked a yawn. “Well, if you’re not going to nap, can I do it instead?”

Jeremy gave him a look that said he knew exactly what he was doing, but lifted the blanket up for Rich to come lay down.

Rich did so without thinking, only for his heart rate to suddenly speed up as soon as he got settled under the covers. His face started to heat up too. But Jeremy was already shutting his eyes, and he wasn’t going to move.

“You okay?” he mumbled, sliding a little closer.

“I’m fine,” Rich got out, his voice much too high for his liking. By some miracle, however, Jeremy didn’t notice. Small blessings.

Unfortunately, Jeremy seemed to like making whatever the hell was happening worse, as the next second he scooted even closer and put his head over the top of Rich’s, who suddenly found himself tucked into Jeremy’s chest.

“Oh goddammit,” Rich whispered, deciding to try to shut his eyes and actually fall asleep but doubting he’d actually get there for a while.

…

It did happen eventually, however, and Rich and Jeremy were both woken up by a very loud pounding from downstairs. Someone must have been at the front—

Fuck. Fuck, what time was it?

Rich scrambled for the pocket his phone was still stuck in and yanked it out to find that it was almost 7:00.

“Wha’s that?” Jeremy mumbled, still sounding very tired.

“Rich! I know you’re here!”

Rich whimpered and curled further into Jeremy.

Jeremy seemed to wake up more when he noticed Rich was scared. “Rich, is that your dad?” he whispered.

Rich didn’t respond aside from burying his head in Jeremy’s chest.

Jeremy jumped up, ran over to his room, and locked the door before returning to where Rich was sitting up and grabbing the pillow to hug to himself. Jeremy sat on the bed again, and wrapped his arms around Rich.

Why the fuck had he taken a nap? What made him think that was a smart idea?  _ Idiot. _

The front door opened downstairs and Rich’s breath caught. They heard the muffled sound of voices and Jeremy grabbed Rich’s hand and squeezed it.

“I’ve got you,” he whispered. “He’s not getting in here.”

The voices downstairs rose in volume, but Rich didn’t try to make out what they were saying, just took another breath and tried to stop whimpering.

“Dad won’t let him come up here,” Jeremy reassured. “He—”

Jeremy was interrupted by the voices downstairs raising to almost screaming volume, and Rich buried his head deeper in Jeremy’s chest and took several heaving breaths as Jeremy shifted to hug him from the front.

Rich stopped even trying to process what was happening downstairs and just stayed tucked into Jeremy’s arms trying to breathe.

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed when eventually Jeremy shifted, and started to stand.

“No!” Rich cried, grabbing onto him.

“Rich, your dad left,” Jeremy whispered. “I’m just unlocking the door for my dad.”

Rich grabbed onto Jeremy’s hand and attached himself to his side as he stood and walked over to the door.

Rich tensed when Jeremy unlocked it, but on the other side was just Paul, standing there looking determined and a little sad. “Well,” he said. “It looks like Rich is going to stay here for a while.”

Rich pulled his head away from Jeremy’s arm and looked over at Paul. “What?” he asked.

“There’s an air mattress downstairs, or you can use the couch if you’d prefer that. It’ll be a little bit before I can get an actual bed.”

“Hang on,” Rich said, not moving away from Jeremy too much but still confused as to what was happening. “What do you mean I’m staying here?”

“Well, I’m certainly not letting you stay with your father anymore,” Paul said. “So, would you like to sleep on the air mattress or the couch?”

“He can sleep in my bed,” Jeremy said instantly. He glanced over at Rich. “Unless you’d prefer to sleep alone?”

Rich blinked a couple times, still trying to process everything that was happening. “Um. No?”

“Okay. Then that’s settled.”

“Woah, hang on.” Now Rich did pull back from Jeremy and look at everyone else in the room. “What’s happening? What did my dad say?”

“He said enough.” Paul said, a bit of anger slipping into his tone. Rich flinched, which Paul noticed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you,” he said, holding up his hands. “But I’m not going to let you or anyone else stay in that kind of situation if there’s something I can do to help. Not again.”

“Dad,” Jeremy grumbled.

“So,” Paul said, looking around at them. “I don’t think anyone wants to make dinner tonight. Do we want to get takeout?”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The warnings that apply for this chapter are Emotional/Psychological Abuse.

Apparently Christine was having trouble with a soldier. Yet another thing Michael hadn’t had to deal with until now.

The Squip brought it up while Michael was downstairs doing his homework. Apparently Brooke Lohst was a recurring problem that often caused trouble such as repeatedly trying to approach Jeremy, mentioning dislike of her role as a soldier, and trying to skip after school meetings.

_ Oh, dear. How can society function with someone wanting to make their own friends and choose what to do with their time? _ Michael scribbled an answer down on question five.

**You’re going to discipline her.**

_ No, _ Michael said instantly. He dropped his pencil and glared at the Squip.  _ That’s the Enforcers job. _

**Normally, yes. However this time, you are going to make an example.**

_ No. _

The Squip shocked him.  **How are you not used to this kind of thing at this point?**

_ I  _ am _ used to it, and I am  _ done _ with it. _

He was shocked again.  **You don’t get to make that kind of decision.**

_ I won’t do it. _

**I am sure I do not need to demonstrate how you do not get to make that call.**

_ Make someone else do it. _

**This would be the best way to show the severity of punishment if someone steps as far out of line as Brooke Lohst has.**

_ I’m sick of hurting people. _

**I’m sorry this is so hard for you, Michael. But it is necessary.**

_ Oh, don’t fucking patronize me, _ Michael grumbled, and picked up the pencil again, turning back to his homework.

The Squip shocked him again before he could start.  **What have we said about talking back to me?**

Michael sighed.  _ Sorry, _ he muttered, finally writing down another answer.

It didn’t take him long to finish the homework, and as he set the pencil down the basement door opened.

“Michael, Jackson is here!” Analyn called down the steps.

“Thanks, Nanay!” Michael called back, turning his chair around.

Jackson all but hopped down the steps, beaming. “Hey, Michael! Great day, huh?”

“Uh-huh.” Michael muttered, turning back to his homework and moving from his desk into the folder in his backpack.

“I don’t know, I’m just in a good mood today,” Jackson said, plopping down on Michael’s bed like he owned the place.

“Oh, yeah?” Michael asked. “Why’s that?”

“‘Why’s that?’” Jackson grinned up at Michael. “Dude! We’re closer than ever to bringing your plan to fruition! Aren’t you excited?”

“I’m something all right,” Michael sighed, looking away.

Jackson sat up, seeming to notice for once that Michael wasn’t 100% peachy keen. “Hey, are you okay?” he asked.

Michael shot a sunshine smile at him. “I’m great. Sorry.”

Jackson sat up a little more. “Is this about Jeremy?”

Michael blinked in surprise. “You… what?”

Jackson sighed. “Michael, I know I’m not exactly the most socially aware, okay? But I can still tell you’re upset.”

Michael gaped at him. “You  _ can?” _

Jackson crossed his arms. “Give me a little credit. I’m not blind, and you haven’t exactly been trying to hide it. You’re upset about losing Jeremy.”

“I’m not… upset.” Why should he be? He had no right to be upset. Jeremy was finally away from him, finally safe, and finally with people who would actually treat him the way he deserved.

“Yes, Michael, you are. And that’s okay.”

Michael looked hesitantly up at Jackson. “It is?”

“Of course! But don’t worry, okay? Look, maybe the Squips are right. Maybe it’s not the best idea to focus on him right now, but that won’t be the case forever! Jeremy just doesn’t understand. We’ll explain it to him in time, he’ll come around.”

“…Oh. You’re talking about squipping him.”

Jackson smiled in bafflement. “Well yeah, what else would I be talking about?”

Michael sighed and looked away. “I don’t know.”

“Hey, just relax, Michael. There’s no way your plan could fail. Just look at the math. Jeremy and Rich’s chances of succeeding are so low it’s almost laughable. And if their chances grow, we’ve got Jenna watching. Don’t worry about it. You’ll have your best friend back before you know it.”

Michael turned his head away from Jackson and blinked quickly.

…

Jeremy did wake up to his alarm that day, but he had also managed to wrap himself entirely around Rich during the night, and that made him very warm and not super fond of the idea of getting up.

“Why must the world punish us so?” Jeremy grumbled.

“Oh, hush.” Rich said, nudging him as he sat up and stretched. “You’re lucky I slept in for you.”

“What? It’s seven in the morning, what time do you  _ usually _ get up?”

“Five.”

Jeremy blinked at him in confusion and exhaustion. “Are you  _ human?” _

“I’m a short sleeper.”

“You don’t have to tell me.”

“No,” Rich said, laughing a little as he climbed up. “It’s an actual thing. I literally need less sleep.”

“Fucking lucky.” Jeremy groaned, rolling back over.

“I’ll make you a deal. I’ll make you breakfast if you loan me some clothes.”

“I mean, I was gonna do that anyway,” Jeremy yawned. “But yeah.” And with that, he rolled over and collapsed onto his bed again.

Rich shook him awake what felt like five seconds later with a plate of eggs.

“You made me breakfast in bed?” Jeremy said in surprise.

“I figured that was about the only way you’re going to be ready on time.”

Jeremy sighed and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, okay.” He sat up in bed and took the plate from Rich.

Rich headed over to the closet and pulled it open, and before Jeremy could tell him his clothes were in the dresser on the other side of the room, Rich called, “Hey, what’s this?”

He pulled out a red hoodie that was covered in patches and held it up in front of himself.

“Oh. Wow,” Jeremy said, setting the eggs down on the nightstand and standing up. “I have apparently not looked in my closet in a really long time.”

“Well that makes sense, this was the only thing in there.” Rich looked it over. “It’s neat. Did you sew these on yourself?”

“Oh, yeah. I made it for Michael, like a million year ago. You know, back when I thought all this Squip stuff was just him being in a bad mood for like, a really long time? I made the hodie to cheer him up and stuck it in the closet. I figured when things went somewhat back to normal I’d give it to him, but then eventually I realized he wouldn’t like it. I guess I just never got rid of it.”

“Huh.” Rich hung the hoodie on the back of the chair. “You should wear it.”

Jeremy blinked. “What? But it’s Michael’s.”

“No it’s not. You made it. You said yourself that he wouldn’t even like it. You should wear it.”

Jeremy bit his lip. He reached for the plate and took another forkful of eggs. “Clothes are in the dresser.”

Rich walked over to the dresser and dug some clothes out while Jeremy finished the eggs.

“Here, I got it.” Rich popped back up carrying a plain white t-shirt and some jeans, before heading out of the door, likely to the bathroom to change.

Jeremy wandered over to the dresser and grabbed the first thing he touched. He found himself with his own pair of jeans and his favorite space t-shirt, which he hadn’t worn in forever. Michael said it looked dumb. He carried the space t-shirt over and set it next to the hoodie, and looked at them both for a second before picking up the hoodie, putting it back in the closet, and changing into the jeans and t-shirt.

Jeremy went to grab his backpack, and had his back to the door when Rich’s voice piped up from the doorway. “So no hoodie?”

Jeremy didn’t hear any obvious judgement, but he ducked his head anyway as he turned around. “Yeah, I don’t know. I just like this shirt, I’m sorry.”

“Hey, you don’t need to apologize,” Rich said. “I don’t care what you wear, as long as you want to wear it.”

“I look weird.”

“You don’t look weird, you look nice.”

Jeremy scoffed. “Yeah, sure,” he muttered.

“Did Michael tell you that you look weird?”

“Michael said I look like a wombat. What does it matter?”

“Michael… did Michael actually say you look like a  _ wombat?” _

Jeremy still didn’t look up. “Maybe.”

“Well, that doesn’t work, ‘cause wombats are the cutest creatures alive.”

Jeremy started. “What?”

“Yeah, seriously.” Rich shoved his phone under Jeremy’s nose. “Look at those cute little shits.”

Jeremy took the phone and scrolled down the images of wombats, surprised to find that they did look incredibly cute now that Rich had mentioned it.

Jeremy slowly looked up as he handed Rich his phone back. Rich smiled at him as he took it, and Jeremy froze.

“What?” Rich asked, his gaze becoming more concerned.

“Oh, no, I just, uh— you— you look— good.”

“Oh.” Rich’s face turned bright red. “Thanks.”

Both of them stared at each other for a second.

“Boys! You’re going to be late!”

Jeremy scrambled for his bag at the same time that Rich stood up. He stood to find him standing in the center of the room, and gave him a curious look.

“Most of my books and stuff are at school,” Rich clarified. “But my backpack is at home.”

“Oh, yeah,” Jeremy realized. “We’ll have to go shopping after school today.”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” Rich said, waving a hand dismissively. “I can deal, it’s fine.”

“Too late, we’re doing it,” Jeremy said, walking past Rich without giving him a chance to argue. Rich sighed, and Jeremy heard him following a few steps later.

As far as Jeremy could tell, Paul hadn’t been kidding about trying more, as he was now making plans to help Jeremy practice driving, at least once they were finished with the apocalypse situation. But for now, he was driving both Jeremy and Rich to school, which meant Jeremy’s morning expectations were very different. Before, he would either walk, catch the bus, or, on the worst days, get a ride from Michael.

Now, however, he was being driven by his father. He hadn’t expected it to be so… nice. Paul played music and sometimes sang along (very, very badly), or made terrible dad jokes and asked Jeremy and Rich what they were excited about for the day ahead. And while Jeremy feigned annoyance and exasperation, in reality, it was… nice. It had been a long time since he remembered his dad behaving like a dad, and while he was being cautiously optimistic, he honestly couldn’t wait to tell Analyn and Rachel—

Oh, yeah.

They’d already had that talk. Jeremy didn’t want to leave them in the dark, but both Rich and Paul insisted that it wasn’t safe for Jeremy to be around Michael right now. And Jeremy reluctantly agreed… because of the Squips, of course. Not anything else.

By the time the car got to school, a ball of anxiety had made itself known in Jeremy’s chest. He hadn’t been to school since breaking things off with Michael, and he had no idea how Michael would react when he saw him again.

“Hey,” Rich nudged Jeremy’s shoulder with his own. “You good?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” Jeremy said, taking a moment to swallow nervously.

Rich reached for Jeremy’s hand and squeezed it, which Jeremy returned gratefully.

“It’s gonna be okay. I’m gonna be right here, alright?”

“You don’t need to be, I’m fine.”

“I’m gonna be worried about you either way, Jeremy.”

Jeremy sighed. “Just… don’t leave me alone.”

“I’ll text you nonstop.”

Jeremy smiled a little. “Thanks,” he said, and they walked inside.

His fears ended up being at least somewhat unfounded. Almost everyone throughout the day ignored Jeremy and Rich entirely. Jeremy caught a couple glances of Michael, which didn’t do wonders for the anxiety, but otherwise the day was relatively easy.

They spent lunch in the library doing more research, and at the end of it Jeremy felt it was safe to say that Matt was more likely to find any information of use. It wasn’t that they were bad at this, it was just that they had no idea where to begin, especially since Jeremy had found the guy on Warcraft entirely by accident.

It wasn’t until the very end of the day that something noteworthy happened. Jeremy was confirming with Paul what time school ended, and Paul was confirming that he’d be there in five minutes, when a very familiar voice spoke up from behind Jeremy’s locker door. “Well, looks like you got yourself a new phone.”

Jeremy jumped and nearly slammed himself into his locker. As soon as he moved far enough away, Michael slammed it shut for him.

“Oh, hi, Michael,” Rich said, moving instantly in front of Jeremy. “Nice to see that now that you and Jeremy aren’t friends anymore you’ve gone from abusive to just a bully.” Rich tipped his head in mock curiosity. “Is that the distinction between those things?”

“Rich, always lovely to see you too,” Michael said, smiling a little too wide for it to be genuine.

Jeremy grabbed onto Rich’s arm without thinking, and Rich reached his hand back for Jeremy to hold.

Michael’s grin widened. “Aww, you two are adorable! Should I be congratulating the happy couple?”

“That’s not funny.” Rich snapped.

“No one said it was a joke.” Michael said with a casual shrug.

“Okay, great. Well, we’ve gotta go, so…” Rich held tight to Jeremy’s hand and pulled them both towards the front door of the school and towards the car where Paul was sitting. Rich opened the back door and all but shoved Jeremy inside. “Let’s go home!” he called quickly.

“Alright, calm down, we’re leaving,” Paul said.

Rich took a deep breath and turned to Jeremy. “Are you okay?”

Jeremy was currently breathing behind his hands as he tried to calm himself down. He nodded wordlessly.

He managed to at least somewhat calm down by the time they got home, and after waving off all of Paul’s questions, went with Rich up to his room.

“Guess we probably should have expected something like that, huh?” Jeremy asked, collapsing on his bed.

“Yeah… maybe,” Rich admitted. “Are you okay?”

“I’m mostly just tired now,” Jeremy muttered. He took a moment to breathe, and Rich was quiet, seemingly not wanting to interrupt him.

“Hey, Rich?” Jeremy asked quietly. “Are you supposed to be scared of your best friend?”

“No, Jeremy,” Rich replied just as quietly.

“I didn’t used to be.”

“I know.”

Jeremy sat up on his bed and looked at Rich. “I don’t know what was him and what was the Squip.”

Rich bit his lip. “I’m not sure you can know. But that doesn’t mean you have to stick with him.”

“I’m still going to get rid of the Squips.”

“You don’t have to be friends with Michael to do that.”

Jeremy laid back on his bed and gazed at the ceiling. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah, okay.”

Jeremy heard Rich’s footsteps coming over shortly before he laid back on the bed next to him. “I’m sorry this happened to you, Jeremy.”

“I feel like Michael deserves that more than me.”

“Michael made a choice to take this thing. You didn’t, but you were affected by it too. Arguably more than him.”

“I don’t know… I wouldn’t say I was affected more.”

“Just as much as him, then. And again, you didn’t have any kind of choice in the matter.”

Jeremy sniffed. “I don’t understand. I don’t understand, why would he want this? I thought— I thought he liked what we had. I liked what we had.”

“There’s no way for us to know without asking him.”

“I don’t want to go anywhere near him.”

“I know, that was implied.”

“Oh.” Jeremy wiped at the snot under his nose and sniffed again. Both of them sat there in silence for a while. Jeremy thought about everything that had happened, and wondered how they’d gotten here.

How had he let his relationship with Michael turn into this… twisted, horrible, abusive thing? How had he done nothing to stop it? Because it had to be his fault, right?

But maybe that wasn’t the point. Wasn’t there a whole argument about victim-blaming and why it was generally bad? Why would both Rich and his dad be trying to keep him away from Michael if it was his fault and he deserved everything Michael did to him?

Or was it Michael? They still didn’t really know anything about Squips. Could it do that? Could it make Michael…

Jeremy wanted to think that Michael would resist if the Squip tried… which it had. That seemed like something Old Michael would do, didn’t it? But maybe he had tried to resist. Or maybe he couldn’t. Maybe Jeremy just didn’t get it.

But then why would Michael take it in the first place? Why would he want to change anything? That didn’t seem at all like Old Michael. Jeremy had been the insecure one, Michael had been… Michael.

There were too many unknowns in all of this for Jeremy to form any kind of opinion yet. But if he wanted to blame something, there was one thing that seemed to be at fault for a lot of his current problems.

“Rich?”

“Yeah?”

“Let’s kick some motherfucking Squip butt.”

Rich gave a short laugh. “You got it,” he said, and Jeremy could hear the smile in his voice.


	8. Chapter 8

Matt had found the Mountain Dew Red. Rich had been thanking him for the past five minutes as Paul grabbed his checkbook and deposit slips for a run to the bank. Apparently you could buy the soda at Menlo Park Mall, which was about the luckiest Jeremy had felt in the past five years.

But it would probably be very expensive to say the least. And they had a whole school to unsquip. They were going to need a lot of it. Jeremy had tried to offer the money he had to help, but Paul dismissed the idea and said he could make it work. Although they probably weren’t going to be going out to eat for a while.

“Spencer’s Gifts…” Jeremy muttered, as he and Rich walked through the mall. “I think I went there a few times with Michael, years ago. His moms had just said we were old enough to be allowed to go there.”

“So how are we gonna do this?” Rich asked.

“Well, this probably isn’t how we’re ‘supposed’ to do it,” Jeremy said. “But I can’t really think of anything else to do other than walk up to them and say we heard they have Mountain Dew Red.”

Rich sighed. “Yeah,” he muttered.

He and Rich were going alone, as Paul was currently at work and this was the only time they could go and be mostly sure no one from school would be there.

If they knew about this place at all. Since you could still buy the soda they were looking for, Jeremy suspected they did not.

Spencer’s Gifts was remembered by Jeremy in name only. It had been so long since he’d been to the store that it might as well be one he’d never heard of for how much he recognized. He could see why Michael used to want to go, however. It was exactly the kind of store that 12 year olds thought of as incredibly cool, though Jeremy wouldn't be surprised if he hated it now.

Jeremy made his way up to the front counter without checking if Rich was following and waited until the girl who was working there glanced up.

“Hi. We’re here to buy Mountain Dew Red.”

The girls eyes widened a little as she raised her eyebrows. “I’m sorry, I’m not sure what you’re referring—”

“Uh-huh, no. Sorry lady, we’re not doing that today,” Rich said, stepping forward over Jeremy’s shoulder. “We need it.”

“How bad?” came a new voice from the back. Another boy stepped forward, and the girl jumped before turning back to him.

“Lucas, you scared the shit out of me!”

“Shut up. How bad do you kids need it?”

“Depends on how much you have,” Jeremy replied.

The guy smirked. “Heh, I like you. Come here, we’ll show you the stash.”

“Lucas—”

“Goddamit Stephanie, shut the fuck up.”

Stephanie shut the fuck up and they all followed Lucas behind the counter.

“Alright,” he said. “We’ve got Surge, Crystal Pepsi, Ecto Cooler, and of course, Mountain Dew Red. Considering that’s what you’re getting, I’m guessing you’re dealing with a Squip problem.”

Jeremy and Rich exchanged a suspicious look. “How did you know that?” Jeremy asked.

Lucas chuckled. “We used to sell Squips a while back. I think you’d be fascinated by how our main buyers have changed in personality.”

“You— hang on. You used to sell Squips?! Are you nuts?!” Rich snapped.

Lucas raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?” 

“Those things are dangerous!” Rich said, walking further forward. “Why would you sell them?”

“Those ‘things’ are  _ lucrative.” _ Lucas said. “I would’ve made it through college on that money if that Michael kid hadn’t fucked it all up.”

Jeremy froze. “Michael?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah. Kid got a Squip  _ for free, _ then took shoes without paying and got us fired.”

“He only got it for free because we forced it on him, Lucas,” Stephanie said quietly.

Jeremy turned to see her in the doorway. He hadn’t even known she was there.

“You did  _ what.” _

Stephanie’s eyes widened in surprise and fear.

Over Jeremy’s shoulder, Lucas laughed and he turned around again. “Oh, please. You’ve got to admit it’s ridiculous. He gets his life changed for the better overnight and he thanks us by getting us fired.”

“You do realize that Squips aren’t a way to change your life for the better, right?” Rich asked, obviously talking through clenched teeth. “They’re horrible abusive supercomputers that are trying to take over the world.”

Lucas snorted. “Oh, please. Do you think I’m an idiot?”

“I think there’s an army of Squips currently running our school.” Jeremy stepped forward. “I think you gave one to my best friend and indirectly ruined my life.”

“Your best friend is the luckiest kid in the entire world.”

“How old was he?”

A hand tapped Jeremy on the shoulder just before Stephanie appeared holding a backpack. “If I had to guess he was 11 or 12,” she said quietly. “That’s all the Mountain Dew Red we have. You don’t have to pay for it.”

“Stephanie!”

“I’m sorry,” Stephanie whispered.

Jeremy took the backpack. “Sorry doesn’t get me the last five years of my life back.”

“I know.”

Jeremy turned and walked out, Rich following him closely.

They were both almost out of the store when Stephanie’s voice called, “Wait!”

_ “Stephanie get your ass back here!” _

Jeremy turned around one last time. Stephanie was jogging towards them carrying another bottle of the red soda. “I forgot the bottle we use for displays,” she said.

“And this is all, you’re positive?” Rich asked.

Stephanie nodded, and took a second to rub at her arm before holding the bottle out again.

Jeremy glanced down at her arm, and noticed a bright red hand mark where she had been rubbing. He exchanged a glance with Rich. “Is Lucas your friend?” he asked quietly.

“Uh, he’s my boyfriend,” Stephanie said in surprise.

“You deserve better than him.” Rich said.

Stephanie blinked in shock like the thought had never occurred to her. It probably hadn’t. “What?”

Jeremy took the bottle and ripped off the label, then took a pen out of his pocket and scribbled down his new cell phone number. “Here,” he offered it back to Stephanie. “In case you ever need a friend.”

“I’m like five years older than you,” Stephanie muttered, even as she took the label and slid it in her pocket. “But uh, is it too much to ask you to tell me how it goes?”

“Yes,” Jeremy said. “But I’ll do it anyway.”

“Thank you,” Stephanie said, rubbing her arm again.

Before Jeremy could look at Rich and try to figure out if he wanted to find a way to stay, other than leave Stephanie alone, another customer appeared in the entrance to the store and started asking Stephanie a question.

Jeremy glanced at Rich.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Rich said. With that, they both headed out towards the bus they were using to get home, with a new set of Mountain Dew Red bottles, all of the money they had before, and a couple new people to hate.

“So,” Jeremy said as they sat down at the bus stop. He was still having to work a little to not punch the nearest wall. “Turns out, Michael did not take the Squip by choice.”

Rich let out a long breath. “Yep. That is a thing that we’ve discovered.” He glanced over at Jeremy. “Are you okay?”

“Well, now I’m angry. And worried. And even more confused than before. So yeah, I’m doing great.” Jeremy buried his head in his hands. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

“Hey, you don’t need to apologize. I’m angry too.”

Jeremy raised his head slowly. “Okay, but who are you angry at?”

Rich blinked in surprise. “Huh?”

“Are you angry at Michael, or…”

“Why would I be angry at Michael? I mean— okay, I’m still angry at him for your sake, but… it’s not fair to blame him for something that it’s become clear isn’t his fault. At least this part of it. I don’t know, I’m not explaining this well. You—” Rich took a breath. “I won’t instantly forgive Michael for everything because we’ve learned this, and I don’t think you should either, but… for now I’ll hold off on judgement, I guess.”

Jeremy nodded a little. “That seems fair. How, uh, how do we feel about Stephanie?”

“Oh, we? Like, how do we feel about…”

Jeremy nodded hesitantly.

“Uh, we feel… how dare she use the fact that she’s dealing with abuse as an excuse to not stop someone else from getting forced into that kind of relationship?”

“Yeah.” Jeremy nodded decisively. “Yeah, that’s totally how we feel. That’s it.”

“We are still going to help her if she asks though, right?”

“Well, yeah.” Jeremy said. “We can do both.”

The bus pulled up in front of them and they both climbed on.

…

“12.” Jeremy looked at the bottles of Mountain Dew Red on the table. “Counting the display bottle, we have 12 bottles of this soda. And there’s what, roughly 500 people in our school?”

“Oh fuck, Jeremy, how are we gonna do this?” Rich asked, burying his hands in his hair.

“I have no idea.” Jeremy glanced at Rich. “We need inside information.”

“We have no way of getting that. Without talking to Michael, which is off the table for many obvious reasons.”

“Someone else, then. Anyone else. We know everyone in school has a Squip, maybe it’s just a case of giving some to someone and learning what they know.”

“And what are the chances of the person we randomly pick knowing enough to help us?”

“Do we have any other options?”

“You— okay, you were in the thick of this thing for like, five years straight. You have to know something about someone, right?”

“I don’t know! I was isolated, probably on purpose! The only people I talked to were Michael and sometimes Jackson!”

“Oh fuck, Jeremy.” Rich groaned.

“I’m sorry.” Jeremy said quickly. “I know, I should have tried harder.”

“What? No, Jeremy, I’m not mad, it’s not your fault. I’m just frustrated with the situation.” Rich stopped moving and sat down. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

“It’s okay,” Jeremy muttered. “I’m just disappointed in myself. I can’t believe I never noticed anything weird about— Brooke!”

“You can’t believe you never noticed anything weird about Brooke?” Rich asked in confusion.

“No, Brooke was at this party with me not too long ago, and she was like, super drunk, and she knew who I was even though I had no clue who she was. She said no one was supposed to talk to me and then got dragged off by her friend Christine. Well, I mean, they didn’t seem like friends, but whatever. Maybe Brooke is the first person we go to.”

“How sure are you that she knows something?” Rich asked.

“Not sure at all. But we have literally no other leads, so.”

“Alright. Well, it’s Friday. We have the weekend to plan. You want to set Monday as our goal?”

“Why not?” Jeremy said, shrugging. “Let’s start planning.”

As they were about to do that, the door opened and Paul walked in. “Hey, you got the soda!”

“Yeah, and here.” Jeremy reached into his pocket and pulled out the giant wad of cash he’d been given. “They gave it to us without paying.”

“They did?” Paul took the cash. “Why?”

“It’s a long story, we’ll tell you over dinner. But we think we have the beginnings of a plan.” Rich said. “Do you still want to help?”

“Of course. Let’s use some of this money you didn’t spend to order pizza and then we’ll see what we can do.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The warnings that apply to this chapter are Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Emotional Manipulation, and Mental Manipulation.

Mondays weren’t particularly awful for Michael. Maybe that went against the teenage stereotype, but for whatever reason the Squip seemed to go a little easy on him on Monday morning.

…Or maybe it was because of the teenage stereotype?

It’s not like Michael would ever have the courage to ask, but it was an interesting thought.

But whatever the case, Michael didn’t mind Mondays as much as he minded every other day of his life.

That morning, Emery had the… good… news that the Squips were finally in transit. They should arrive by Friday at the very latest. Which meant it was finally time to get ready to spread Squips outside of the school. But first, they had to finish squipping the few people left who worked for the school that didn’t already have a Squip. They had missed a couple teachers and janitors. The teachers had never done much in the spread of Squips to the school. It would look weird even to Jeremy if all of the teachers were suddenly hanging out with students as if they were friends, and Jeremy wasn’t allowed to realize anything weird was happening.

_ Guess you failed with that. _

The Squip shocked him, and Michael flinched.

He had no idea how the janitors were helpful for the spread of Squips. Maybe they knew people.

But if Mondays were his favorite days, this was still his least favorite Monday in a long time. He was supposed to “make an example” of Brooke at lunch in front of everyone. Jackson had been sent on some kind of minor mission during lunch, because obviously he couldn’t be there when something like that was going on.

Despite the fact that he knew something horrible was coming and Brooke likely didn’t, the first half of Michael’s day felt completely normal— well, as normal as life could feel when you were the center of a plot involving evil supercomputers and the only person you really cared about didn’t want anything to do with you anymore and it was no one’s fault but your own. But anyway, the first half of the day was fine. He still did his best to pay attention in class like he usually did, as it was one of the few ways he had left to spite the Squip. He did his work himself, and only changed an answer when the Squip told him it was wrong. He talked to Chloe about potential problems that were popping up and what was being done to stop them.

Apparently the managers had been making decisions about Jeremy for years. Michael had found that out the past Thursday.

It was as Michael was about to enter the lunch room when it happened. Michael didn’t feel anything different, but one of the students across the hall suddenly doubled over and started screaming.

Michael jumped back in shock as his Squip seemed to jolt a little. Michael felt a shock that he was pretty sure the Squip hadn’t intended.

_ What the fuck? _

**I… don’t know.**

_ Excuse me? Since when do you not know? _

**I am not omnipotent, Michael,** the Squip snapped.  **One moment while I review data.**

The person across the hall collapsed, and everyone surrounding him backed up in surprise and fear.  _ Uh, are you done? Because it looks like we should call an ambulance or something! _

**Oh dear.**

_ What? _

**We need to do damage control immediately. This was not supposed to have happened.**

_ What? What happened? _

**Jeremy Heere and Rich Goranski have found the Mountain Dew Red.**

Michael blinked. He took a second to process. He blinked again. He took another second to process.  _ That’s… _

**The substance that shuts off a Squip, Michael, yes, are you finished staring at me like an idiot?**

_ Jeremy and Rich… took out someone’s Squip? _

The Squip sighed in obvious irritation.  **Yes. Now come with me. And grab the student.**

The Squip didn’t try to control him for once, but that might have been because Michael was in too much shock to do anything other than exactly what it said.

No one stopped him as he dragged the student towards a vending machine, and accepted the bottle of Mountain Dew held out to him by Jenna Rolan, who then forced the kids mouth open in a way that always made Michael’s breath catch whenever he saw it. Jenna forced the drink down the kids throat and the Squip stood Michael up, who had calmed down enough to finally process everything that was happening.

_ You said Jeremy and Rich couldn’t possibly succeed in doing anything. _

**There was an infinitesimal chance—**

_ You were  _ wrong.

The Squip shocked him.  **Do not talk back to me.**

_ Sorry, _ Michael said on instinct.  _ But you— you were wrong. They did something. They’re going to keep doing something. You failed. _

The Squip turned them both sideways into the theatre, down the front row, and opened the door that lead into the space under the stage. It slammed the door after them, probably trying to intimidate Michael.

…It was working.

**Let us make one thing very clear.**

Michael backed across the dark space, having no idea if he was about to bump into anything until he did, it being the back wall. He couldn’t see the Squip anywhere in the dark, and that as well as the atmosphere made it seem even more like it was just a voice in his head.

**You are** **_stuck_ ** **with me. Understand? You will never be rid of me. This is your life, and it will continue to be your life.**

_ I know. I— _

**If you have any kind of fantasies about Jeremy riding in like a knight in shining armor to save you, I suggest you get rid of them now. If you try to speak to Jeremy without my permission, mark my words, I will find a way to Squip him. Do you understand?**

_ Jeremy— Jeremy doesn’t have to listen to you, _ Michael got out weakly.  _ I don’t have to do anything and he could still try to save everyone. He could still try to save me. _

To Michael’s surprise, the Squip laughed.  **Save you? Oh, you naive boy. Now why would he do that?**

_ What? Because— _

**Even if by some miracle Jeremy managed to help anyone else in the school, he wouldn’t try to save you. He** **_hates_ ** **you.**

Michael’s mouth ran dry.

_ What? _

**Do you blame him? Look at everything you’ve done to him. Look at everything you’ve let me do. You let me break him almost beyond repair. It was entirely your fault and there is** **_nothing_ ** **you can do to change that. You can’t possibly expect Jeremy to still care for you.**

Michael felt his legs starting to shake. He squeezed his eyes shut, not that it made any difference whatsoever with how dark it was.  _ I… I care about him. _

**One of the many things that makes you pathetic.**

Michael’s breath caught, and he let it out much too quickly before pulling in another gasp. He had a half-formed thought that he should try and slow his breathing or he was going to have a panic attack, but before he could try the Squip started talking again.

**Honestly, Michael, it’s amusing to see your little displays of attempted resistance. Nothing is going to change, and there is nothing you can do.**

_ I don’t know, _ Michael was gasping even in his head.  _ Are you keeping track of where all the people whose Squips were just shut off are? _

**What are you—** The Squip cut itself off mid-sentence and went dead silent.

_ Yeah, _ Michael got out.  _ That’s what I thought. _

And with that, his legs collapsed from underneath him and he blacked out.

…

“Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck—”

“Rich! You’re not helping!” Jeremy snapped.

“Sorry!”

Jeremy switched the old cloth from Brooke’s head to a new cloth as Rich and Paul both did the same for one of the other people who were now laying on Jeremy’s living room floor. There were six of them in total.

“Okay,” Jeremy said, putting the cloth in a basket that was going down to the laundry room. “So we weren’t really expecting anyone to… scream, and collapse on the ground, but hey, you live and learn, right?”

“We could easily be accused of kidnapping,” Paul said faintly. “We need to either get these children to a hospital or feeling better and send them home.”

“We can’t do that until they wake up and we have some idea of what happened and what they know,” Jeremy said. “Look, we—” He took a deep breath. “We have until the end of the school day before they’re expected home, right?”

“You don’t think the school will tell anyone?” Rich asked.

“Not if the majority of the school is squipped. They’ll be trying to get these people back and squip them again, they won’t want to raise alarm that anything happened.”

“You’re probably right,” Paul admitted hesitantly.

“So we have until the end of the day,” Rich said. “What if none of them wake up?”

“Then we take them to a hospital,” Paul said firmly. “So we do not get accused of kidnapping.”

“Yeah, that seems like a good plan,” Rich muttered.

“Okay.” Paul stood up and picked up the basket. “I’m going to take all these down to the laundry room so we have more when we need them.”

“Okay, I’ll stay in here to watch all of them,” Jeremy said. “And Rich, you should keep an eye out for anyone at school posting anything.”

“I gotcha,” Rich said, pulling out his phone and heading for the kitchen.

Jeremy was then alone with a bunch of unconscious people. He checked every now and then to make sure they were breathing and flipped their washcloths over, as well as sat on the couch and tried to breathe slowly to keep himself from absolutely losing it, but other than that it was surprisingly boring. He expected it to feel a little different when they finally made some progress. Maybe it was because they were unconscious.

The good news was, with Brooke they had confirmed that it only took a few drops of Mountain Dew Red to turn off a Squip, which meant they still had practically 12 whole bottles. Jeremy had no idea why it had affected these other people aside from Brooke, but that couldn’t be a bad thing… right?

As Jeremy was pondering this, Brooke started to stir. Jeremy looked over quickly, and sure enough, a couple seconds later Brooke opened her eyes. She shifted her head until it fell on Jeremy.

“Um… hi,” Jeremy said slowly. “So, let me explain—”

Brooke screamed.

“Oh, fuck!” Jeremy cried, shoving his hands over his ears as Rich sprinted in from the kitchen.

“What the fuck is going on?!” he yelled.

“Brooke, please calm down!” Jeremy cried, reaching his hands out to try and calm her.

Brooke shoved her hands in her hair and started to pull.

“Okay, woah!” Rich practically leapt over the other unconscious people and pulled Brooke’s hands away from her hair as Paul finally appeared in the hall.

Brooke glanced up at Rich with a similar look to a crazed animal, before her face crumpled, and she pulled away from Rich and buried her face in her hands as she started to sob.

“What did I do?” Rich asked, backing away.

“I don’t think you did anything.” Jeremy said. He stepped slowly forward and reached a hand out. “Brooke?”

_ “Don’t touch me!” _ Brooke screamed, smacking Jeremy’s hand away.

“Okay.” Jeremy backed off instantly, nudging Rich back as he went. “No touching. Got it.”

“Why are you doing this to me?” Brooke sobbed, burying her head in her hands again. “I’m sorry, okay? Is that what you want to hear? I’ll never try to talk to Jeremy again!”

“Um. Well. I’ve got some bad news for you,” Rich muttered, luckily quiet enough for Brooke not to hear.

Jeremy stepped slowly forward, just a couple inches. “Brooke, we’re not going to hurt you.”

Brooke gave a crazed laugh. “If you want me to believe you’re real you’re going to have to try harder than  _ that.” _

Oh.

_ Oh.  _ Shit, that was going to make this a whole lot harder.

“Brooke?” Jeremy said softly. “I am real. This is really happening. Your Squip is gone.”

“What a load of  _ bullshit,” _ Brooke hissed.

“Hey, Brooke? I’m going to do something, okay? If you want me to stop, tell me to stop and I’ll stop.”

Jeremy walked forward as slowly as he could. Brooke still looked terrified, but she didn’t tell him to stop. Jeremy held his hand out in front of her. Brooke reached forward hesitantly and touched it, then jerked back instantly. When nothing happened, she reached forward again. Jeremy let Brooke grab his hand and turn it over and inspect it. She reached forward and put her hand on his chest, then drew back a second later, maybe because she felt a heartbeat. “You’re real,” she finally murmured.

Jeremy nodded. “I’m real.”

Tears welled in Brooke’s eyes, and she launched herself at Jeremy’s chest and sobbed into it. Jeremy wrapped his arms around her, trying to be the least awkward he possibly could.

He turned around a second later to find Rich and Paul looking a mixture of impressed and very, very concerned.

Jeremy did his best to shrug with his eyes. Brooke eventually stopped crying, but she didn’t seem to want to move, and though Jeremy wasn’t used to getting desperate hugs from girls he barely knew, it was clear trying to move her would be a very bad idea.

Jeremy wasn’t sure how long the two of them sat there. Long enough for Rich and Paul to change everyone’s washcloths and disappear into the kitchen to come back with food.

“Hey, Brooke?” Jeremy asked softly.

Brooke whined from her spot on Jeremy’s chest.

“Do you want something to eat?” Jeremy continued.

Brooke nodded.

Jeremy took the peanut butter sandwich offered from Rich and nudged Brooke’s shoulder gently.

Brooke slowly pulled herself back from Jeremy’s chest and took the offered sandwich before starting to eat it hesitantly, like she was worried it had been poisoned.

“Are you doing okay?” Jeremy asked.

Brooke mumbled something incoherent through a mouthful of food.

“Yeah, okay,” Jeremy admitted. “Stupid question.”

Brooke nodded.

“Jeremy, it’s almost 3:00.” Paul said. “We’re going to take these kids to the hospital.”

Jeremy glanced back at Brooke. “Do you want to go to the hospital or do you want to stay here?” he asked.

Brooke grabbed Jeremy’s arm and squeezed it tightly.

“Okay,” Jeremy said softly. “You’re going to have to let your parents know where you are then.”

Brooke nodded and pulled out her phone to do so, as Jeremy turned back to Rich and Paul.

“So, what are you going to do? Are you just going to put them in the back seat?”

“We have room for all five of them in the van.” Paul said. “I’m glad Brooke woke up, or she would have had to be carried on someone’s lap.”

“Why do you think she woke up and no one else?” Rich asked.

Brooke mumbled something.

Jeremy turned to her. “What?”

Brooke swallowed her bite of food and turned to face Jeremy. “I got the Mountain Dew Red directly,” she said, just loud enough for Jeremy to hear. “All of them were just synced to me. That probably more directly affected my Squip so everything happens faster.”

“What’s syncing?” Jeremy asked.

“Squips can connect to share data and goals. If someone who’s synced with someone is given Mountain Dew Red, all the Squips they’re synced with are also shut off.”

“Oh, okay,” Jeremy said softly. That was fantastic news, but he didn’t want to get overexcited when Brooke was clearly still so fragile.

“Are you gonna stay here?” Rich asked, as he and Paul moved to pick up someone else.

“For now, yeah,” Jeremy said. “I’m not gonna leave Brooke alone right now. Will you guys be okay on your own?”

“Yeah, we’ll be fine,” Paul said, as he and Rich lifted the first person into the air. “You stay and talk to Brooke.”

Jeremy nodded. It wasn’t until the door to the garage was shut after the two of them that Brooke asked, “Talk to me about what?”

Jeremy glanced at her. “Oh, um. We wanted to ask you what you knew about everything, but if you don’t feel up to it, don’t worry about it.”

“I mean, you need to know,” Brooke muttered, fidgeting with the bottom of her shirt.

“Yeah. But you’ve been through a lot. Don’t try and force yourself to do something you can’t handle.”

Brooke looked hesitantly up at Jeremy. “Tomorrow?”

“If you feel up to it then, sure.”

Brooke took another bite of her sandwich before finally pushing herself off the floor and climbing onto the couch. Jeremy sat next to her.

“Can I have some more?” Brooke murmured, handing Jeremy her empty plate.

“Yeah, I got you.” Jeremy stood and headed for the kitchen, taking Brooke’s plate with him. He was pretty sure they had some chips in the cabinet.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The new tag I put, Food Deprivation, applies to this chapter.

Michael woke up feeling a little more tired than usual, a lot more hungry than usual, and to the Squip hovering inches from his face.

**You have a lesson you need to learn.**

_ Oh, do I? Very well, bestoweth upon me thy wisdom. _

The Squip did not look amused.  **We’re going to stay in here until you learn it.**

_ I get to skip out on school? Sweet! Gotta say, your punishments are getting less effective over time. _

The Squip didn’t respond, and Michael leaned back on his bed, texted his moms that he was sick and staying home that day, and watched a movie and a half before his stomach growled at him and he climbed up to get some breakfast.

The Squip stopped him at the steps.  **I’m sorry, but the kitchen is not part of this room.**

Michael raised an eyebrow at the Squip.  _ I’m just going to eat some breakfast. _

**The kitchen is not part of this room. I told you we are staying here until you learn the lesson you need to learn.**

Michael blinked at the Squip.  _ You’re not going to let me eat breakfast? _

**Must I repeat myself a third time?**

Michael stared at the Squip for a second before slowly heading back over to his bed and sitting down again.  _ What lesson am I supposed to be learning here? _

**Oh, it’s quite simple. Just admit that no one is going to help you.**

Michael blinked up at the Squip in surprise.  _ What? _

**You heard me correctly, Michael. I have already repeated myself far too much during this conversation. Just repeat it back to me and you can go eat breakfast.**

Michael didn’t say anything for a minute.

The Squip raised an eyebrow.

_ Why does that matter? _

**You are the head of this operation. I cannot have you plotting against it right as we are about to move to the next stage. Admit that there is no way out of this and no one is going to help you, and you can go eat.**

Michael stared at the Squip for a moment.  _ No, _ he said finally.

The Squip narrowed its eyes.  **I see. In that case, we will remain here.**

Michael turned back to his bed, picked up his computer to watch another movie, and ignored the growling in his stomach.

…

“Michael, honey, do you want anything to eat for dinner?” Analyn called through the door.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to eat anything, Nanay!” the Squip called for him. “I don’t know if I can keep it down!”

“Okay, let me know if you change your mind!”

That was the first Michael had heard from his mothers at all since they’d left for work that morning. The hunger had stopped being noticeable a couple hours ago, and the irritation he felt that likely stemmed from the hunger disappeared around the same time.

Unfortunately, the headache he felt hadn’t gone away yet. There was a bathroom in the basement, so he drank water from the sink, but it didn’t help a ton.

The Squip staying just outside his vision at all times like a creepy ghost wasn’t helping a ton either.

**Are you ready to admit anything yet?**

_ Fuck off. _

For once, talking back to the Squip didn’t bring any kind of shock. The Squip just gave Michael a disapproving look and disappeared.

Michael opened a new tab on his computer and hesitated for a minute before typing anything in.

Logically speaking, humans could go around three weeks without eating, right? The Squip wasn’t going to let him die if he was so important to this plan, so if he could make it that long, he’d… win? Well, a hollow victory if anything, but he wouldn’t lose.

Michael typed in ‘effects of food deprivation’ and scrolled down the screen, and although most of what came up were about using fasting for diets, which was not helpful, the gist of what he got was that during the first couple days, he’d be irritable, have a headache, and not be able to think as clearly. Check, check, and… that one could be a problem. But it hadn’t happened yet, so maybe it wouldn’t. This could be more of an individual, ‘these side effects could happen’ type of thing. The bigger problems were said to come after three days, where the body would start to eat itself and its own protein, and it could bring potential for illness. But if he wasn’t leaving his room, the worst he’d have to worry about is his body cannibalizing itself, right? And that was totally doable. Piece of cake.

Why would he use that analogy? Now he wanted cake.

Michael groaned and rubbed at the spot between his eyes.

…

**Have you had enough yet, Michael?**

_I already told you to fuck_ off, Michael grumbled, trying not to look at his Squip as he threw his clothes into the washing machine. He was trying to keep busy.

Was it Wednesday yet, or was it still Tuesday? He was finding it hard to keep track. That must have been the foggy brain thing the internet talked about.

Michael checked his phone and saw that it was about 2:00 Wednesday morning. He should probably go to sleep, and since that was still staying in his room, he could—

Hunger pangs. Those were a thing. Michael took a minute to lean against the wall. Apparently the stretch of time where you don’t notice hunger because it’s been long enough doesn’t last nearly as long as it should.

Michael sat down on the floor and tucked his head into his knees as he waited for the pain to pass before he sighed and stretched out again. Why did he feel the need to curl in on himself when he felt pain? It’s not like it made it any better.

Neither of his moms had come to check on him since dinner. It was probably only because the Squip texted them that he wanted to be alone, but it still irked him. Did they not notice that he hadn’t eaten anything all day? Were they not concerned? Granted, sickness did take away your appetite and they thought he was sick, but still.

Or maybe they just didn’t care about him. It’s not like it would be undeserved.

Michael reached for his phone and checked it for any messages from Jackson. There was just one, from that morning, saying that Jackson’s Squip had told him he was sick and that he hoped he felt better soon.

Great. So he could count on absolutely no help.

**Indeed, that is what I’m trying to teach you.**

_ Ugh, no, wait— oh, fuck off! _

The Squip did so. Michael put a little cup of soap into the washing machine and started it.

…

**All you have to do is admit no one is going to help you, and you can go eat something, Michael.**

_ Go away. _

**It is quite simple. I don’t know why you’ve insisted on protesting for this long.**

_ Fine, is that all you want? No one is going to help me. There, you happy now? _

The Squip sighed. **No, Michael, you have to mean it.**

_ Meaning it wasn’t an original rule. _

**The rules have changed.**

_ Then fuck off. _

The Squip sighed and vanished again. Michael turned back to his computer screen and tried to ignore the way it was swimming in front of his eyes. He rubbed at the spot where his glasses usually sat and whined, as if that would help his headache go away. He’d turned the lights off a few hours ago because it was bothering him so much, and took off his glasses and put them on his nightstand, in hopes that doing so would help. But it hadn’t, and now he was starting to feel nauseous. Was that something that could happen when you didn’t eat?

**If you put all of those symptoms together it is more likely this is a migraine.**

_ Fuck off. _

The Squip disappeared again.

…

“Michael, pulot?”

Michael stirred to Analyn moving his hair back from his face, and— oh, fuck. Ow.

“Nanay, migraine,” he moaned, shifting away.

“Sorry, baby. You really should eat something. It doesn’t look like you’re getting any better.”

No, that would be because for the first time now, he was actually sick. He hadn’t thought it would onset this quickly. Or at all, since he was doing nothing but staying in his room. Maybe the Squip was messing with his immune system.

Michael didn’t really focus on what excuse the Squip gave to get Analyn to go away, but he did notice that she did, and he curled miserably around his pillow again.

**Is there anything you would like to say, Michael?**

_ Fuck… go away. _

**I see. You know, Michael, I’m not sure why it is so hard for you to admit the truth. No one has come to help you, and no one is going to come to help you.**

_ Only because… you lied to them. _

**Hardly a valid point to make. Anyone can see something is wrong at this point. It is much more likely they simply don’t care enough to help you.**

Michael attempted to pick up the pillow and shove it around his ears, but couldn’t get much further than moving his arm in a vague direction that he didn’t think was even towards the pillow.

**You are indeed not thinking clearly. The pillow would do nothing to help. I am a voice in your head, Michael.**

_ Please just go away. _

**Well. Since you asked so nicely.**

The Squip might not have gone away, but it did stop talking, and Michael managed to grab onto the pillow and pull it towards him with more effort than he thought he possessed at the moment.

How many days had it been?

**Four.**

There was no way he could last three weeks. Not with the Squip fucking with all of his senses and able to make things worse anytime it wanted.

**Ah, so do you have something to say?**

Michael didn’t respond.

…

One of his moms had put a plate of crackers on his bedside table, with a note telling him to please eat them. Michael had been trying for the past half hour to muster the strength to grab it, but the Squip wouldn’t let him.

_ Just let me have one of them, _ Michael begged.

**Of course. But what’s the magic words?**

Michael buried his face in his pillow and stifled a sob.

**Michael. If you were not aware of it before, the past four days have surely taught you that there is no way for you to get away from me. You are going to be stuck with me forever. Now, what are the magic words, and you can eat your crackers.**

Michael didn’t move his face from the pillow.

**Well?**

_ No one… no one is going to help me, _ Michael said weakly.

**So are you going to be resisting the plan anymore?**

_ I’m not going to be resisting the plan anymore. _

**Excellent. That will make this easier on everyone.**

_ Can I have my crackers now? _

**I don’t believe you’ve earned them. You can eat some for breakfast tomorrow.**

Michael stifled another sob and buried his head further into his pillow, trying to go to sleep.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The warnings that apply to this chapter are Emotional/Psychological Abuse, although it's just talked about.

“I was squipped a couple months ago,” Brooke said. “That makes me luckier than most people in our school. I’m a soldier.”

Brooke had ended up staying the night on Monday, and after breakfast seemed more ready and willing to talk about everything. Paul was at work, so Jeremy and Rich stayed home that day and promised to tell him everything they talked about.

Jeremy exchanged a glance with Rich across the dining room table before looking hesitantly back at Brooke, who was on his right side. “You’re a solider? What does that mean in regards to Squips?”

“Soldiers are the lowest on the totem pole,” Brooke said. “I mostly did a bunch of grunt work. It sucked. In multiple ways.” Brooke crossed her arms and ducked her head. “Squips can shock you, and mess with your head, and control you, and—” She shuddered. “You have no choice in anything, ever.”

“I’m sorry, Brooke,” Jeremy murmured, offering his hand in case she wanted to hold it. She didn’t reach for it, and eventually Jeremy pulled it back.

“Do you know anything about the way we could bring down the Squips? Stuff about syncing or anything like that?” Rich asked.

“I don’t have access to a ton of information. Like I said, I was just a low-level soldier. But I know there are small groups of soldiers that are synced together. They can change based on whatever we’re supposed to be doing. I don’t know anything about groups other than soldiers syncing wise.”

“Do you know how many other groups there are?” Rich asked.

Brooke nodded.  “Yeah. As far as I know, there’s Enforcers like Christine, who are supposed to keep the peace, and Managers, but I don’t know who they are. And then Michael, Jackson, and Emery. They’re like, separate from everything. Michael’s on top with Jackson and Emery just below him.”

Jeremy nodded. “I kinda figured that much. Do you have any idea who’s synced to who in soldiers?”

“Other than the people who were synced with me, no.” Brooke ducked down a little more. “I— I’m sorry.”

“Woah, hey, it’s alright.” Rich said. “We’re not mad at you.”

Brooke looked up hesitantly. “It’s okay if you are. You wasted all that effort on me, and I can’t even give you anything.”

“We didn’t waste any effort on anyone,” Jeremy said firmly. “The point wasn’t ever to get information, the point was to help people get rid of their Squips. Looks like we succeeded to me.”

“But you need to know this stuff if you want to help anyone else,” Brooke whispered.

“We never expected to learn everything on the first try,” Rich said. “And all the stuff you know about syncing has been incredibly helpful. Thank you, Brooke.”

Brooke sniffed and wiped at her nose before looking back up at Jeremy. “So how else can I help?”

Jeremy paused in surprise. “What?”

“You’re trying to get rid of the Squips, and there’s a lot of them. How else can I help?”

Jeremy exchanged a glance with Rich before turning back to Brooke. “By staying home and recovering.”

Brooke blinked. “Huh?”

“Brooke, you’ve just been through something incredibly traumatic,” Rich said. “You’re gonna need some time to recover. We have a plan, we’ve got this, okay?”

“But—”

“If you really want to help,” Jeremy said. “You can check on the people in the hospital. The ones you were synced to. And make sure no one goes back to school. It’s not safe for you guys right now.”

Brooke bit her lip and hesitated for a second. “Okay,” she said finally. “But also, there’s something else you should know. There was one more person we were synced to. I think they resquipped them.”

Jeremy and Rich exchanged a glance and sighed. “Yeah, okay,” Jeremy said. “We kinda figured something like that would happen at some point too. We never had any contact with them, so we should be okay for now. Thanks for letting us know.”

Brooke nodded.

“We can probably give you a ride home when Dad gets home. Or to the hospital, if you really want to go,” Jeremy offered.

“The hospital. I want to do something before I sit around for a long time.”

“Brooke, you won’t be sitting around, you’ll be  _ resting _ and recovering,” Rich said.

“Is there a difference?”

“Yes,” Jeremy and Rich said at the same time.

Brooke blinked at both of them before laughing a little. “Okay, maybe you’re right,” she muttered. “I still want to tell everyone else what happened, though.”

“Okay,” Jeremy said.

Brooke yawned and stretched before turning back to Jeremy again. “Could I take a nap on your couch?”

“You can use my bed if you want,” Jeremy said, gesturing to the steps.

Brooke hesitated. “Really?”

“Of course. First door on the right.”

“Okay.” Brooke stood up. “Thank you.”

Jeremy nodded a little in acknowledgement, and Brooke walked over and disappeared up the stairs.

“So,” Jeremy said, turning to Rich. “You’ve been away from your dad for a couple days now. How are you feeling?”

Rich hesitated. “Adjusting,” he admitted. “It’s different to not have to constantly be on guard. How are you feeling about Michael?”

“I may or may not be reevaluating everything about the past five years of our relationship.” Jeremy tipped his chin forward and rested it on his hands. “All of the bullshit seems incredibly obvious now. I get the thing about being on guard, though.”

Rich smiled a little at him. “It’s jarring, right?”

“Yeah.”

Rich bit his lip a second later, and Jeremy knew he was about to get a serious question. “Can I ask you something?”

Jeremy nodded.

“Do you think you were trying to tell me about what was happening with Michael?”

Jeremy narrowed his eyes in confusion. “What do you mean? I didn’t tell you. You figured it out on your own.”

“No, I mean, not with words. But you invited me over when you knew Michael was coming later, and you never really tried to hide how he treated you. Do you think you were trying to tell me what was going on?”

Jeremy hesitated. “Maybe,” he admitted. “Maybe I wanted you to know.” He sighed and dropped his head from his hands into his arms on the table. “I don’t know. I just can’t believe I was stupid enough to put up with that for so long.”

“I don’t think it makes you stupid,” Rich said. “It’s also probably a good blanket statement that victim blaming is incorrect.”

“Okay, but is it actually victim blaming if you’re shitty enough that you deserved everything that happened to you?”

Rich stares at Jeremy for a second. “Yes.”

“Oh, really?” Jeremy sat back a little. “Okay.”

Rich sat forward. “Jeremy, you know you didn’t deserve anything that happened to you, right?”

Jeremy fidgeted with the corner of his shirt. “I don’t know. I mean, we can all agree I suck.”

“We really can’t all agree on that, no.” Rich crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. “I think that’s just you, Jeremy.”

“Michael seems to agree.”

“Michael’s an idiot. Who may not actually think that. I don’t know, we’re still not sure yet.”

Jeremy smiled a little at Rich. “When did our lives get this screwed up?”

“Don’t ask me. I didn’t ask for this shit. I just wanted to make a new friend in video game club, I never asked to be pulled into a robot apocalypse.”

Jeremy laughed a little. “Sorry,” he said, only half joking.

Rich reached for Jeremy’s hand and grabbed it. “Don’t be. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Jeremy looked at Rich in surprise, because surely he didn’t really mean that, right? But the bright red blush on his face said pretty clearly that he did. Jeremy felt his own face heating up.

“Oh,” he choked out. “Okay then.”

Neither of them moved for a second, and then Jeremy’s eyes must have started playing tricks on him, because he could have sworn that Rich was leaning closer—

“Hey, can I ask—”

Both of them screamed and leapt apart before whirling around to find Brooke standing at the bottom of the steps. She threw her hands up and backed up a step. “Jesus, I’m sorry! I just wanted to know if I could have some water!”

“Of course!” Jeremy screamed, leaping up from his chair. “I will retrieve that for you immediately!”

“You’ll… retrieve it?”

“I am off to the kitchen! Here I go!”

…

It wasn’t until later that night that Jeremy worked out what was happening. In retrospect, it should have been obvious. He certainly wasn’t opposed to crushing on Rich, if it was even possible that you could oppose your own feelings. He’d suspected he was bi for years, and there was, um… other evidence that Jeremy really didn’t want to think about.

But he couldn’t focus on his love life right now! He was trying to save Michael! And— and the school.

That was the only reason, of course. Just people he was trying to save. That and the fact that his entire worldview had been flipped on his head recently and it was way too confusing for him to try and figure out love too.

Or crushes. Not love. He was just crushing on Rich right now, and it’s not like there was other love to think about. Nothing that could possibly make this any more confusing, no sir. Just a problematic crush on his new best friend. But he could deal with that.

Jeremy turned and looked to his left to see Rich curled around his pillow. They were buying a new bed that coming week, but as of now Rich was still sleeping in Jeremy’s bed. But he could handle that! He could definitely handle that.

He could definitely handle all of this.

No problem. Almost nothing to handle. He could figure this out and deal. Piece of cake.

…

In the following days there was a buzz around school about Michael being sick. It was apparently a big deal, big enough that Jeremy heard it whispered about it in class, and despite himself, he couldn’t help but worry. He tried to put his mind off of it by planning the next stage of their Rebellion™ with Rich, and checking on Brooke and the other people who were staying home from school and recovering from their “seizures.”

Michael finally showed up again on Friday, which Jeremy noticed pretty much immediately because—

“He looks  _ awful.” _

“Jeremy. Buddy. Let it go.” Rich said, grabbing Jeremy’s hand and squeezing it tightly on each word to enforce his point.

“Is he sure he’s not still sick?”

“You’re not helping yourself by continuing to obsess over him.”

“I’m not—” Jeremy started, and stopped, because that was exactly what he was doing. “I’m just—”

“You don’t have to explain it to me. I just don’t want you to go back to being friends when this is over only for him to start treating you like shit again and you let him.”

“That’s not gonna happen,” Jeremy said.

“Why not?”

“Because now my dad is watching Michael like a hawk and will pounce if he so much as looks at me wrong?”

Rich hesitated for a moment, then shrugged. “That’s true.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“But you should seriously try to get to a point where  _ you _ don’t want to be treated that way either.”

“Yeah, and how are you doing in that regard?”

“Hey, I had a head start. I’ve hated my dad for years. You never really hated Michael.”

“I still don’t.”

“Yeah, see, my point exactly.”

At that point they split up to go to separate classes. Jeremy tried his best to not think about Michael and talk with Rich about the next person they were going to go after with the Mountain Dew Red. Rich said at lunch that he suspected that Chloe, Jake, and Madeline were probably pretty important to the whole lineup. They might have even been the managers, considering that they were at lunch everyday with Michael, Emery, and Jackson. “I don’t think we should try and focus on them, though.”

“What? Why not?” Jeremy asked. “Taking out the managers would probably be a big blow.”

“They’re probably heavily guarded, and we don’t even know if they’re synced in any way. If they’re not, they would try incredibly hard to get the other manager squipped again. It just seems too risky.”

“Well, they’re the only lead we have. So what do you think we should do instead?”

Rich sighed. “There, I have no idea.”

Jeremy sighed and stood up, starting for the classic section to pick up a new book, as Rich had been pushing him to get one to read. Jeremy joked with him that it was like being friends with his English teacher.

Right as he turned the corner though, he rammed straight into a girl who was practically leaning against the bookshelf. She jerked upright, stared at Jeremy with wide eyes, and turned and bolted the other way.

Jeremy chased after her until she ran past Rich and out the door of the library.

Both of them stood in silence for a second before Jeremy turned to Rich in slight bafflement.

“Who was that?” Rich asked. “And why was she spying on us?”

Jeremy smirked a little and held up his backpack with the bottle of Mountain Dew Red that they were currently using. “You want to go ask her?”


	12. Chapter 12

By the time Rich and Jeremy made it out into the hallway, the girl was already gone. But while Rich looked to the right, Jeremy looked to the left, and he must have seen something Rich didn’t because he grabbed his arm and yelled, “This way!” before pulling Rich along behind him. Rich caught up a couple steps into the run and they both made it to the end of the hallway before turning.

The girl was running through the doors that lead into the other wing of the school, and Rich sprinted ahead, not managing to make it more than a couple steps behind Jeremy due to him being a fair bit taller.

By the time they made it through the doors Rich was already running out of breath, and the girl was reaching for the door of a classroom. Luckily, Jeremy was still faster than Rich and managed to sprint the last couple feet and pull her backwards before she got a handle on the door.

Rich reached into Jeremy’s backpack and pulled out the Mountain Dew Red while Jeremy struggled to hold the girl in place. He managed to do it for long enough for Rich to twist open the bottle and force her to drink a little of it. The rest of it spilled over the floor.

“Fuck!” Rich hissed, closing the bottle quickly to save what he could.

The girl went limp in Jeremy’s arms, and ended up taking Jeremy down with her.

“Ow, ow, ow, okay, ow.” Jeremy wiggled himself out from under the girl just as she started screaming.

“Oh, fuck!” Rich cried. “How did we forget about that?” He looked around to see if anyone was coming as Jeremy shoved his hand over the girl’s mouth.

“Get her outside and then call Dad?” Jeremy asked.

Rich nodded, and they waited until the girl stopped screaming and went limp again before shifting to try and pick her up before discovering that wasn’t going to happen. The girl was bigger than both of them, and both Jeremy and Rich were, to put it lightly, not in shape.

“Okay, pick her up and we’ll carry her between us?” Jeremy suggested.

Rich nodded, and they managed to do that with significantly less difficulty.

They finally made it outside, propped the girl up so she was leaning against the wall on a bench, and Jeremy pulled out his phone to call Paul.

Rich looked back towards the school, but surprisingly, no one was running outside to stop them. If she was synced to anyone they would have noticed, right? Maybe she was on a solo mission of some kind?

“Okay,” Jeremy said, walking back over. “Dad will be here in five minutes. How do we want to make this look like we didn’t kidnap her?”

“Let’s all take a nap?” Rich suggested.

Jeremy hesitated, glanced back at the girl who was sitting on the bench with her eyes closed, and shrugged. “Alright.”

They both sat down on either side of the girl and shut their eyes. Rich didn’t move until about five minutes later when a horn honked and he jerked upwards to see Paul pulling up.

Rich and Jeremy both climbed up and shifted the girl in between them again, then carried her to the car much slower than he would have liked.

Luckily, no one appeared to point at them and accuse them of kidnapping this time, and ten minutes later they had the girl laying on the couch in Jeremy’s living room, Paul going back to work and promising to be home later that day.

“Well, if she was synced to anyone, we missed them,” Jeremy sighed, sitting on the chair to the side of the TV.

“Yeah, and lost most of our Mountain Dew Red bottle in the process,” Rich groaned, holding up the now almost empty bottle.

“It’s fine, we have eleven more.” Jeremy stood up and walked into the kitchen, and came back with one of the bottles from the fridge, which he slipped into his backpack. “And we don’t know anything about who’s synced with who yet. Let’s not panic until we have to.”

Rich blinked at him. “Who are you and what have you done with Jeremy Heere?”

“Ha ha. I’m trying to be realistic, Rich. It’s not hopeless yet. In fact, it’s far from it.”

The girl gasped, sat bolt upright on the couch, and looked around. “It’s— it’s you,” she said.

“Uh. Yep. Hi.” Rich waved at her awkwardly. He hadn’t really known what to say when Brooke first woke up, and this situation was no different.

“Are you okay?” Jeremy asked, stepping forward. “You kinda fell, and you might have hit something.”

“I’m, uh—” the girl took a deep breath and let it out slowly, seemingly trying to calm herself down. Everyone waited for about half a minute while she did so. “I think— I’m okay physically. I’m— processing. Now. I’m processing.” She reached for her head. “This is weird. There’s no voice.” She glanced up at them. “That doesn’t make any sense to you.”

Rich shook his head. “Uh, no.”

The girl took another deep breath. “I’m Jenna. I’m a spy.”

Rich exchanged a glance with Jeremy. “Uh, what?” he asked.

“You turned off my Squip because you saw me watching you. I’m a spy. That’s our job. And I’m not synced to anyone by the way.”

“Woah, slow down.” Jeremy sat down on the couch next to Jenna. “I just asked if you were okay.”

“I told you, I’m processing. And you turned off my Squip because you caught me watching you, right? I’m just explaining why I was doing that. I was assigned by Chloe to watch you.”

“Chloe?” Rich asked, sitting forward, because he’d just realized something. “She sits with Michael at lunch, along with Jake and Madeline. They’re the managers, right?”

Jenna nodded. “Yep, that’s them. They answer to Michael mainly, but also Jackson and Emery.”

“Woah, hey! Everybody take a breath!” Jeremy held his hands out in front of him and stood up. “Let’s slow down. A lot just happened. Jenna, do you maybe want to take a moment? Do you want anything to eat?”

“Oh.” Jenna seemed to pause to process the question. “Um, sure. Can I just have some chips?”

“Yeah, I’ll get them,” Rich said, standing. He walked into the kitchen, got Jenna a bowl of potato chips, and walked back in to see Jenna and Jeremy still talking.

“But uh, I didn’t really have my Squip for that long, so I’m good,” Jenna was saying. “Just, thanks for helping me.”

“Of course,” Rich cut in. Both of them glanced over as he walked forward and handed Jenna the bowl of chips, which she took and started eating. “We’d do it for literally anyone.”

Jeremy nodded. “Bar Lucas. Maybe. If I was having a bad day.”

“Well, that’s a given,” Rich said with a shrug.

After they made sure Jenna knew it would likely be dangerous to come to school again for a while, they all in front of the TV and streamed some mindless shows when Jenna mentioned she kind of wanted to watch some, and let the Squip talk fade into the background.

…

Jenna was already in the library on Monday when they both showed up.

“Jenna?” Jeremy asked, sounding just as surprised as Rich felt. “I didn’t think you would come to school today.”

“Well, I didn’t want to just show up at your house.” Jenna said. “And how else am I supposed to help you guys?”

Rich shared a look with Jeremy before Jeremy walked forward and sat at the table. “Jenna,” he said. “You’ve been through something traumatic. You should take some time to recover.”

“I told you, I’m fine. I didn’t have my Squip for very long.”

“Jenna—”

“Jeremy.” Jenna looked up at Jeremy with a sincere look of determination. “I want to help.”

Jeremy glanced back at Rich. He shrugged. Jeremy seemed to know what to do in this situation better than he did.

Jeremy sighed. “Alright. But you need to take it easy, okay? If you start feeling exhausted or overwhelmed then take a break.”

Jenna nodded. “Okay.”

They both sat down as Jenna pulled out some sheets of paper. “Alright, so, I’ve been looking at what I know, and I think the best move for you guys is to take out the managers next.”

“We talked about that.” Rich tipped his head in confusion. “Wait, weren’t you in the library listening when we had that conversation? So you know why we decided it was too risky?”

“Yeah, except the managers  _ are _ synced to each other. So getting rid of one gets rid of the others, and like you said yesterday,” she gestured at Jeremy. “It would be a huge blow.”

“But Rich is right, they’re probably not going to be easy to get to,” Jeremy said. “How are we going to get past any guards?”

“I hate to break it to you guys, but they’re only going to become harder to get to. As you unsquip more and more people, they’re going to be more closely guarded, and at the same time become more and more relevant and important. Taking them out as soon as possible is the best move.”

Jeremy glanced over at Rich. “That makes sense,” he said.

Rich shrugged. “Yeah,” he admitted. “But that still doesn’t solve our larger problem of how are we going to get to them?”

“Okay.” Jenna shifted through some papers and pulled out three that she laid out on the table in front of them. “Here’s what I’m thinking.”


	13. Chapter 13

Jeremy hated to admit it, but Jenna was a huge asset. As much as he tried to push against the idea of anyone jumping right back into the fight with the Squips, Jenna knew so much, and was so obviously a good strategist when it came to how to utilize what she knew. He wasn’t sure how much of a chance they would stand without her.

The plan to take out the managers was never going to be simple. They were almost constantly surrounded by some kind of security, and when they weren’t, they were surrounded by Michael, Jackson, or Emery, who were problems for different reasons.

Their one advantage was that all of the managers were synced, so they could each handle getting one of them to Jeremy’s house even as only one of them dealt with the Mountain Dew Red.

Jeremy had taken that role for himself, and was going after Chloe. Jenna was handling Jake and Rich was getting Madeline as Paul was waiting out in front of the school with the car.

Maybe they really were becoming kidnappers. Honestly Jeremy wished there was a better way to do this. It couldn’t be very nice to be forced to take the Squip and then forced to get rid of it any amount of time later. Granted, it wasn’t likely that many people who had the Squips liked them, but it still left no choice for the actual person involved, which they had to be sick of experiencing.

Chloe and Jake both left the school at the same time, most likely due to the fact that Jake gave Chloe a ride home everyday. So Jeremy and Jenna were both hiding behind the steps in front of the school.

“Okay, Chloe is always waiting at Jake’s car.” Jenna said. “So that gives you a small window of time in between when school ends and when Jake shows up, because honestly I don’t think you could take on Chloe and Jake. Unless you let me help you—”

“Not unless something goes wrong,” Jeremy said instantly. “I can do this.”

“Okay,” Jenna sighed. She was about to say something else when the bell rang.

“Here they come,” Jeremy said, and they both leaned forward a little. It took about half a minute before people started pouring out of the doors, and Jeremy and Jenna both ducked down further so no one could see them.

Jake’s car was visible to Jeremy’s right, and Paul was parked just behind it. And so here they were. About to perform a legitimate kidnapping in broad daylight. Rich was on the other side of the parking lot where Madeline’s car was.

Jeremy was about to ask Jenna how long it usually took when Chloe appeared in his view.

Acting mostly on instinct, Jeremy leapt up and after Chloe, ignoring the cries of surprise around him until someone yelled “Chloe, watch out!”

Chloe whirled around just as Jeremy tackled her to the ground. There was a sickening crunch that Jeremy did his best not to focus on as he pulled the Mountain Dew Red from his backpack. Someone grabbed his shoulder and tried to yank him backwards, but a blur of Jenna swatted the person away, and Jeremy forced the Mountain Dew Red down Chloe’s throat.

It was about five seconds later of pushing people away and starting to get overwhelmed before Chloe started screaming and was scooped up by Paul at the same time everyone around them jumped back in surprise. Jeremy wondered how many of them had seen someone’s Squip get shut off before. Jenna hoisted Jake up, and Jeremy walked over to help her as they shoved both of them into the backseat of their car.

Paul jumped into the car and drove the now five of them to the other side of the parking lot, where Rich dove into the backseat with Madeline as other people started to run towards the car.

“Fuck, fuck, drive!” Rich screamed.

Jeremy reached over and pulled the door shut as Paul started speeding away.

There was a moment of silence as everyone processed what had just happened.

“Well.” Jeremy shifted himself around until he wasn’t laying on top of Chloe anymore. “I think we count as kidnappers now.”

“Hey, but we’re… the good… kidnappers?” Rich asked, sounding incredibly unsure about the sentence even as he was saying it.

“Does it count as kidnapping if you let them go several hours later?” Jeremy asked.

“Yes,” Jenna said, pushing Jake off of herself as she sat up.

“Oh, okay.”

The car was silent again until they got back to the house, pulled into the garage, and carried Jake, Chloe, and Madeline into the house one at a time.

“Okay, so following the pattern Chloe should wake up first, right?” Rich said as they put her down with Madeline on the air mattress that had taken up residence in the living room. Jake was put on the couch.

“Yep,” Jenna said, leaning against the wall by the front door. “And if you thought I knew a lot, these three are gonna know even more.”

Jeremy paused and turned back to face her. “Jenna, we’re not going to make them help. We told you that already, didn’t we?”

Jenna blinked at him in surprise. “You were serious? But they could be a huge asset. They know so much.”

“They’re also people who’ve been through a lot. Getting rid of their Squips will already do a lot to help us, because they’ll have to either work without managers, or waste time trying to get new ones. We don’t need to put anyone through any more trauma than they’ve already been through.”

“But—  _ I’m _ helping you.”

“You said you wanted to.” Jeremy stepped forward. “Do you need a break? If you need to take some time to relax and process it’s okay.”

“Yeah,” Rich piped up from behind Jeremy. “We appreciate your help, but we completely understand if it’s too much for you right now.”

“No, I—” Jenna stopped and took a deep breath. “I’m fine. I’m not sure I agree with not trying to learn what any of them know, but… I respect your decision.” She nodded at Jeremy.

Jeremy nodded back and smiled a little. “Thank you.”

And with that, the afternoon fell into a calmer silence. Jenna managed to hack into Chloe and Madeline’s phones and text their parents that they were at a friends house since school was already over and they would otherwise be expecting them soon. She would have done Jake’s too, but she said his parents were never around and likely wouldn’t care.

“Wow, um, okay,” Rich said. “So we’re gonna check in on Jake after everything is over, huh?”

Jeremy nodded. “I mean, we’re going to check in on everyone, but yeah.”

Paul made pancakes as breakfast for dinner, and Rich, Jeremy, and Jenna all sat in the dining room while they all waited for everyone to wake up.

“So are your parents not questioning your sudden change of behavior?” Rich asked Jenna curiously. “I mean, you have to be acting differently without your Squip, right?”

“Oh, they’ve noticed. But they’re no more concerned about me than they’ve been for the past year of my life. You get pretty good at avoiding parents and their concerns when you have a Squip.”

“Yeah,” Jeremy muttered. “I noticed that. I don’t think Michael’s moms even have much of an idea that anything’s wrong. I mean, he might have tried to tell them when he was drunk once, but Michael gets weird and sad when he’s drunk anyway, so.”

“Um. Jeremy.” Jenna looked away. “You do know… that Squips don’t work when you drink alcohol, right?”

Jeremy turned to stare at Jenna. “What?” he asked, as he mentally thought back over every time he’d ever seen Michael drunk.

“Okay, cool. New information.” Rich whacked Jeremy on the arm. “Stop reevaluating whether or not Michael is a bad person.”

Jeremy turned to Rich in surprise. “But—”

“No. That’s for when all this is over. Then you can obsess over the morals of everything. For now you stay away from the person who is only going to hurt you again if you try and figure this out right now.”

Jeremy didn’t say anything, and Rich raised his eyebrows. After a minute, he sighed. “Alright.”

“Good,” Rich said, nudging Jeremy in the side before grabbing his hand and squeezing it.

Jeremy looked away as his face started heating up, and he was about to reply when there was a sudden gasp and then scream from the other room.

All three of them jumped up from the table and raced in to see Chloe sitting up and holding her right arm. “Ow,” she said. “Ow, I— I think my arm is broken!”

Jeremy winced. “Oh, fuck, right. I landed on it.”

Chloe glared at him, tears of pain starting to well in her eyes. “You broke my arm?! Fuck,  _ ow.” _

“Dad!” Jeremy called. “We need to take Chloe to the hospital after all!”

Paul appeared in the doorway a couple seconds later and took in the scene before nodding. “I’ll get the car. Who’s staying here with Jake and Madeline?”

“I’ll do it,” Rich said, raising his hand.

“Thanks Rich.” Jeremy said, walking forward to help Chloe up, who was still holding her arm. Jeremy followed Paul out to the car and helped Chloe into the front seat, before sliding into the backseat next to Jenna.

“Alright. Hang in there, Chloe,” Paul said, opening the garage so he could back out.

“How are you feeling other than your arm, Chloe?” Jeremy asked, sitting forward.

Chloe took a staggering breath. “I’m… not sure yet,” she admitted. “I… can I get back to you on that?”

“Of course,” Jeremy said sincerely, leaning back and giving Chloe some space. She spent the rest of the ride holding her arm and breathing deeply.

When they got to the hospital, Paul turned around to face the three of them. “Okay. Just a heads up, I figured I would be taking people to the hospital a lot, so I told them I’m the school nurse.”

“Oh. Okay, cool.” Jeremy said, giving Paul a thumbs up. “Chloe, can we trust you not to—”

“No, I’m going make them think something suspicious is going on,” Chloe said, raising an eyebrow. “Because that’s not more likely to cause problems with what you guys are doing.”

“Okay, got it.” Jeremy climbed out of the car and pulled open Chloe’s door so she could do the same.

“I’m really sorry about that,” he said, as he shut the door after her.

“You shut off my Squip,” Chloe muttered. “I’ll get over it.”

They walked in as the man at the front desk glanced up. “Oh, don’t tell me there was another seizure?!” he exclaimed.

“Actually,” Chloe lifted her arm a little. “A broken arm this time.”

The man glanced at Jeremy and Jenna. “And you two?”

“We’re her friends,” Jenna said. “We were with her.”

The man nodded and sighed. “I’ll call someone,” he said, and Paul thanked him as he walked up with Chloe while Jenna and Jeremy stayed back. 

“So,” Jenna said. “Is there something else we should talk about?”

Jeremy glanced over at her. “Huh? What do you mean?”

“I’m referring to the fact that you’re falling for Rich faster than a skydiver with a broken parachute.”

Jeremy’s face went bright red. “I— uh—”

Jenna raised an eyebrow.

“…Is it that obvious?”

“Maybe a little. But I’m also just super observant. Why do you think I was a spy?”

“Oh god,” Jeremy buried his head in his hands.

“Hey, calm down. I’m not going to tell him.”

Jeremy peeked out from between his fingers. “Wait… you’re not?”

“Of course not. Why would I?”

Jeremy pulled his hands down. “I don’t know, because it would embarrass me? And it’s something personal that I’m already embarrassed about, so that’s double the embarrassment?”

Jenna stared at Jeremy for a moment. “Well, that would be really shitty. Who would do something like that?”

Jeremy opened his mouth to answer and stopped. Jenna seemed to realize what he was thinking of and went quiet next to him.

“I’m not going to do something like that, Jeremy,” she said after a moment.

Jeremy nodded a little. “Okay. Um, thank you.”

“You don’t need to thank me for that.”

Jeremy bit his lip and started fidgeting with his fingers before looking over at Jenna. “Um, can I ask you something?”

“Of course,” Jenna said with a nod.

“Do you know if Michael is… happy?”

Jenna looked down. “I don’t think so, Jeremy.”

“Is it… is it possible for a Squip to…” Jeremy let his voice fade off.

“It— it is,” Jenna said slowly. “Squips can force you to do things you don’t want to do. But honestly Jeremy, I think Rich is right. Let’s leave all of those questions for after the fact.”

“I know, I just…” Jeremy sighed.

“You don’t have to explain yourself. I get it.”

Jeremy looked hesitantly up at Jenna. “One more question?”

Jenna nodded. “Okay.”

“How many people knew?”

Jenna winced.

Jeremy gave a short bitter laugh. “A lot, huh?”

“Pretty much… everyone. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not like I didn’t—” Jeremy cut himself off, because he was trying not to think that way anymore.

“Jeremy,” Jenna nudged him in the side. “You deserve good things.”

“Uh-huh, sure.”

“I mean it. You really do. Which is why I think you should tell Rich how you feel.”

Jeremy jerked in surprise and turned to gape at Jenna. “What?”

“I think he feels the same way. But even if he doesn’t, you guys can have an honest conversation about how you feel and establish any boundaries you want to. And… you should try and let yourself believe that you can have good things.”

Jeremy bit his lip. “You really think I deserve them?” he asked softly.

“I really do.”

Jeremy took a deep breath and turned to face the front desk right as the people that must have arrived at some point during their conversation were leading Chloe towards the elevators. Paul turned and was about to start back towards them when Jeremy responded. “I’ll think about it.”


	14. Chapter 14

“I don’t understand,” Jackson muttered, writing something else down on his massive pile of papers. “I don’t understand, this shouldn’t have been possible.”

Michael looked up from his spot on his bed and said nothing.

**Tell him to calm down.**

“Jackson, calm down.”

“But don’t you know what’s happened? Jake, and Chloe, and Madeline, they—”

**I know.**

“I know.”

“Jeremy shouldn’t have had the resources to make this possible. Did we do the math wrong?” Jackson shifted more papers around.

**Don’t worry. I’m working on a plan to fix the situation.**

“Don’t worry. I’m working on a plan to fix the situation.”

“It shouldn’t even be a situation! I don’t understand, what— what are we missing?”

**Go put your hands on his shoulders to reassure him.**

Michael stood up and walked over to grab Jackson’s shoulders, and felt the Squip take over. There must have been a big speech coming.

“Jackson, do you trust me?”

Jackson nodded.

“Do you trust my Squip?”

Jackson nodded again.

“Do you trust the plan?”

Jackson nodded one more time.

“Then don’t worry about it. This is just a minor hiccup.”

Jackson let out a breath and ran his hands through his hair as Michael let go of his shoulders and the Squip let go of Michael. He walked over to sit on his bed again.

“You’re right.” Jackson let out a much calmer breath. “Of course you’re right. We can do this. We’ll be okay. We’re not going to fail.”

Michael stared at Jackson as he breathed in and seemed to pull the slightly fragmented pieces of himself back together. He turned around and took one more breath before turning back around to Michael with a large smile on his face. “Okay! So what’s next?”

Michael blinked at Jackson for a second in slight wonder.  _ Huh. That was honestly kind of impressive. _

**You’re going to be taking on more responsibility now that you don’t have any managers.**

“We’re going to be taking on more responsibility now that we don’t have any managers.”

**You need to make sure everything is still ready in time. Emery is going to help some of the soldiers with the preparing of the Squips.**

Michael leaned back on his hands and let out a sigh. “We need to make sure everything is still ready in time. Emery is going to help some of the soldiers with the preparing of the Squips.”

“Okay, that makes sense.” Jackson scooped up his piles of paper and crumpled them up before walking into the bathroom, likely to toss them in Michael’s trash can.

**You are going to need to prepare yourself to get about five hours of sleep a night until this is over and Jeremy is Squipped.**

Michael winced inwardly at the later part of the sentence before sighing and collapsing onto his back on the bed.  _ Fine. What do you want me to do? _

…

“What about Emery?” Rich said. “I don’t think we could get to Michael or Jackson, but if we want to deliver another big hit, Emery would probably be a good choice.”

“I don’t think it’s very likely that we could get to Emery either,” Jenna said with a sigh. “Especially after getting Chloe, Jake, and Madeline. They’re definitely going to be too closely guarded to try and get to them now.”

“Well then why don’t we just take out the guards?” Jeremy muttered, writing something in a notebook. He had been very distracted all day, so Rich was a little surprised when he spoke up, but he also had a really good point.

“Jeremy, you’re a genius!” Jenna exclaimed.

Jeremy glanced up. “Wait, what? Really?”

“The Enforcers are also an integral part of the system, and they’re  _ all _ synced to each other. If we take them out that would be tremendously helpful! Except… there’s a problem with that.”

Jeremy closed his notebook and Rich sat forward to pay closer attention.

“There’s so many of them.” Jenna said. “There’s no way we could realistically get all of them out before too many of them are resquipped. Not to mention, Enforcers are people who deliver punishments, keep things in order. They’ve been trained in a lot of ways to fight Squips, so it doesn’t matter that Squips can control them physically. They'd be able to beat it. Because of that, they have to be convinced that they’re doing the right thing, or they’ll rebel. So most of them have been brainwashed. The old fashioned way. Even the ones we do manage to get to will probably be pretty hard to convince not to go straight back to the Squips.”

“But there’s far more soldiers.” Rich pointed out. “Too many that taking them out one group at a time will make a difference. They’ll have time to regroup and recover as we’re doing it. And we have no idea when they’re going to make a move in retaliation. We have to take out more of the support system before we try and go after any regular soldiers.”

“I have an idea,” Jeremy said. Both of them turned to face him. “They need Mountain Dew to reactivate Squips, right?”

Rich and Jenna both nodded.

“Does anyone use the sophomore lockers?”

Rich blinked. “Uh… that’s a bit of a different subject… the ones in the basement?”

Jeremy nodded.

“I don’t think so,” Jenna said. “They get the worst lockers, so I don’t think any of them really ever use them. I mean, maybe a few people, but…”

“Okay.” Jeremy was starting to grin. “Hey Jenna, do you know how to get hold of locker combinations?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“We’re gonna start our own little plan.”

…

“Jesus Christ, how much Mountain Dew does this school have?” Rich wheezed, dropping another handful of bottles into the locker before calling, “This one is full!” and slamming it shut.

They had filled over a dozen lockers with Mountain Dew at this point, and still had a ways to go. They had stayed after school and waited under the guise of video game club, despite the fact that it was actually tomorrow. After the last person left, they got the key from the janitor’s closet and opened the soda machines to get the Mountain Dew out, and here they were.

“Hey, could you hang onto this?” Jeremy called out, walking over and handing Rich the almost empty bottle of Mountain Dew Red. “I keep almost throwing it in the locker, and unlike the Mountain Dew bottles, this one is made of glass, so it would break.”

“Sure,” Rich said. “But honestly at this point we could probably throw this one away.”

“It still works.” Jeremy said. “It seems like a waste to throw it away. Plus, someone we don’t want to get it could get ahold of it… I don’t know, It just feels safer to hang on to it.”

Rich shrugged, taking the bottle and putting it in the second, slightly smaller pocket of his backpack. “That’s fair.”

“Okay,” Jenna said, dumping another bag full of Mountain Dew into a locker and moving to refill the bag as Jeremy and Rich did the same. “So we have probably about until this time next week until there’s more Mountain Dew delivered and everyone is resquipped. I say we start our plan tomorrow and spend the next week trying to convince as many people as possible not to go back to the Squips.”

“Sounds like a good plan to me.” Jeremy said. “How are we gonna go about unsquipping them?”

“Well, the good part about the Enforcers is that they do all of the physical stuff.” Jenna stood up and walked over to another open locker. “All the people trying to stop you when you unsquip someone have been Enforcers. If we take them all out, and there’s no Mountain Dew to resquip them, no one will be able to do more to stop you than an average person who doesn’t know much about fighting. We’ll have to deal with some Squips controlling people, but if we pick a spot with no other people around, we should be good. And then we spend the next week trying to convince as many people as possible to switch sides.”

“Alright,” Rich said. “That sounds doable. Or at least potentially doable.” He stood up and walked over to another locker, emptying the Mountain Dew into it. It took them another five minutes or so to get all the Mountain Dew into lockers, and they had shut them all and started for the door when Rich turned to Jeremy. “You know that some people are just going to go buy Mountain Dew from a store, right?”

Jeremy nodded. “I know,” he said quietly.

They dropped Jenna off at her house before heading back to their own, and Jeremy immediately pulled his notebook out of his backpack and disappeared up to his room.

“Oh, hey Rich,” Paul appeared before Rich could follow him. “Your dad dropped off all your stuff today.”

Rich stilled before turning to face Paul. “So what does that mean? I’m staying here for good?”

“Looks that way.” Paul gave him a little smile. “Unless you don’t want to.”

“Well, I don’t want to go back,” Rich muttered. “So um. Thank you. Where’s my stuff?”

“I put it on the couch. You might want to move it before we have to bring the next people back here.”

Rich nodded and headed over to the couch. He picked up a handful of things including his backpack and schoolwork and carried them with him up the steps.

“Hey, Jeremy, my father dropped off a bunch of my shit,” he called as he opened the door. Jeremy jumped and slammed his notebook shut as Rich dropped all of his stuff on his new bed. “I have my backpack back now, can I just put this one in your closet?”

Jeremy nodded, hugging the notebook to his chest as Rich did so. “You don’t want to use the new one though?”

“I liked my old one. Matt bought it for me, so it holds fond memories.” Rich turned back from the closet.

Jeremy nodded, still looking a little jumpy. Rich decided not to acknowledge it for now. “Hey, would you mind coming to help me carry some more stuff?” he asked as he started for the door.

“Rich, wait.”

Rich stopped and turned around again.

Jeremy had his hand outstretched as if Rich was going to disappear. He paused, and opened his notebook, flipping through a couple pages.

Okay, maybe he should acknowledge it. Rich stepped forward. “Are you okay, Jeremy?”

Jeremy took a deep breath and closed his notebook. “I need to tell you something.”

“What? Is something wrong?”

“No! I mean, sort of? Only if you want it to be?”

Rich blinked. “What?”

Jeremy sighed. “We met exactly a month ago,” he said.

Rich started to smile. “You remember the date? Aww, Jeremy.”

“Yeah, but I don’t really want to be friends anymore.”

Rich’s smile faded as a spike of fear and sadness went through him. “What?”

“No, fuck! That’s not what I— wow, I phrased that badly. Um, I don’t want to be friends Rich, I kinda want to be more? Because I, uh, I really like you. Like not in a friend way, because you know, I’m bisexual, and fuck shit this was stupid you’re probably straight anyway fuck why did I think this was a good idea fuck fuck shit—”

Oh.

Everything was starting to make sense now. There was a simple reason why he felt nervous when he was close to Jeremy, why he made him so happy, why his laugh made him feel like he was melting, why he was a little disappointed when he had to move to his own bed, and why—

_ Oh. _

Rich walked towards Jeremy, who was still in the middle of a panicked rambling, and gently took his hands.

Jeremy stopped and looked up, and Rich squeezed his hands. “Jeremy,” he said. “I like you too.”

Jeremy’s smile turned into the sun. “You do? Really?” he whispered.

Rich laughed a little. “Yeah,” he said, probably smiling too wide himself. “Can I uh, can I kiss you?”

“I’ve never kissed anyone before,” Jeremy muttered. “It’ll probably suck, but uh… yes.”

“Well, that’s one more thing we have in common,” Rich said, and he leaned forward.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The warning that applies for this chapter is mental manipulation.

Paul gave them a smile and nod when they told him. Jenna gave them a knowing grin. Matt sent them a thumbs up text emoji as well as texted Jeremy a big brother warning.

Jeremy had never dated anyone before. He’d probably fuck it up. But somehow, right now, that was okay. Because Rich didn’t seem to mind. And now they could hold hands all the time. And kiss. And snuggle when they watched movies. Why did he ever try and tell himself he didn’t deserve this kind of thing?

Unfortunately, their honeymoon phase had to be put off a little bit, due to the fact that they had Squips to deal with. They couldn’t wait any longer than necessary to turn off the Squips of the Enforcers, as they had a limited amount of time to get through to everyone they could.

Jenna knew who most of the Enforcers were, and they all decided the best option was to go after someone in the front of the school, that they could easily pull outside and get away from anyone who might stop them. Jenna suggested a senior, as they were the ones who had lockers in the front hallway of the school, and since they were larger and generally stronger they were more likely to be Enforcers.

They all hung out just around the side hallway at Jenna’s locker, acting like they were talking about something else— well, okay, everyone probably knew what they were talking about, but no one made a move to stop them. Yet.

“Okay, so the front hallway is emptiest a couple seconds after the bell rings,” Jenna said. “Who wants to do this?”

“I’ll do it,” Jeremy said instantly, because there was no way he was letting either of them put themselves in more danger than they had to. “It’s already in my backpack anyway, and it would be dangerous to try and switch it now.”

“Okay, good point,” Rich said. “But you understand we’re still you’re backup, right?”

“I would expect nothing less,” Jeremy said, squeezing Rich’s hand and giving him a smile. Rich did the same back.

“You two are going to give me diabetes,” Jenna said. “Bell rings in one minute.”

“Do you see anyone in particular I should go after?” Jeremy asked.

Jenna looked around and bit her lip, starting to look nervous. “Oh, boy.”

“What?” Rich asked anxiously.

“All the seniors are leaving,” Jenna said.

“Do you think they know what we’re doing?” Jeremy whispered.

“What are we supposed to do now?” Rich hissed.

Jeremy peeked around the corner. Standing with their back facing them was a girl he had seen a couple times, Christine Canigula. Brooke had said she was an Enforcer, right? “I have an idea,” he said quietly. “But don’t freak out.”

“What are you going to do?” Jenna hissed.

Jeremy sprinted towards the seniors that were leaving, waited until they were all whirling towards him on guard, and turned and sprinted in the other direction.

He jumped around the corner and all but tackled Christine to the ground, and before she could react, got a couple drops of Mountain Dew Red down her throat.

Jeremy jumped off of her and stepped back as she started screaming, followed by the seniors in the nearby hallway, and more down the hallway Jeremy was in, and coming from the one next over.

“We need to  _ leave!”  _ Jenna screamed, yanking Jeremy back from where he was staring at Christine and pulling him towards the other hallway. It took Jeremy a second for his brain to catch up and he grabbed Jenna’s hand.

“We can’t leave the school!” he yelled over the screaming. “That would look suspicious!”

“Yes, and staying near the scene of the crime would be even more suspicious!” Jenna yelled back. “Let’s find a hallway that we haven’t seen yet and act surprised!”

“Okay, that’s a good plan,” Jeremy admitted, and grabbed Rich’s hand as they all ran through a couple hallways before ending up in one with a bunch of people staring at screaming kids on the ground seconds before all of those kids went limp and stopped screaming.

All three of them took a breath.

“Are you sure they won’t blame us?” Rich asked quietly.

“There’s no way they can realistically blame us for a seizure,” Jeremy replied. “And they wouldn’t want anyone investigating and finding out there’s something odd about this school.” He paused. “You know, more than all of the students suddenly having seizures out of nowhere.”

“So let’s go visit Christine after school,” Jenna said. “She should be awake by then. And we’ll check to see if anyone else is too.”

Jeremy nodded, and they all waited as teachers and other students appeared. Everyone was looking directly at them, but just as Jeremy suspected, they weren’t making a move.

It was about ten minutes later that an announcement came over the speakers, saying that school was going to end early that day. Jeremy texted his father to come get him and Rich, and Jenna said her parents were going to want her to go home first, so she’d see them at the hospital around 1:00.

With that, they split up, and Jeremy and Rich were arriving home ten minutes later.

“You okay?” Rich asked as they both stepped into Jeremy’s room.

“Yep.”

“Are you lying?”

“Yep,” Jeremy said, collapsing back on his bed. “Wow, that was way more intense than any other Squips we’ve shut off so far.”

“Yeah, it was a lot,” Rich admitted. Jeremy felt the bed dip as he sat down next to him, and reached blindly for his hand until Rich took it. “We’ve got a long week ahead of us. Just… let me know if you need a break, okay?”

“Only if you do the same.”

“Deal.”

Jeremy squeezed Rich’s hand, and they both sat there in silence for a minute.

“We’re supposed to try and combat years of brainwashing in a week,” Jeremy said quietly.

“We’re not going to be 100% successful. How do you want to go about this?”

“Let’s start with some research?” Jeremy suggested.

They went with understanding first. Obviously they didn’t have any first hand knowledge as to how Squips worked. They texted Jenna, who said she hadn’t been messed with mentally as far as she knew, but she would let them know if she thought of anything, and would do some research of her own. According to their ten minute google search before going to eat lunch, brainwashing usually relied on Guilt, Isolation, Dependency, and Fear.

“Well, I know a little something about being isolated,” Jeremy said, taking a bite of his ham and cheese sandwich. “Maybe that’s where we should start, just let them know they’re not alone.”

“Jenna will probably help a lot with that,” Paul said. “Since she’s gone through something very similar to them.”

“That’s a good point,” Jeremy said. “We should probably let her take the lead with a lot of this.”

Rich nodded. “Yeah, that sounds best. We might just not know enough here to be of much help. But you probably know more than me,” he added, addressing Jeremy. “You were closer to these things, and like you said, you know what it’s like to be isolated. Don’t start thinking you won’t be of any help here.”

“Okay, I won’t,” Jeremy said.

They all headed over to the hospital after eating, met up with Jenna, and discovered a new problem.

“There’s 150 Enforcers?” Rich asked. “How is this going to work? I’m not sure we can get to everyone and give them each enough time. There’s only four of us.”

“That’s why we’re going to help.”

The four of them turned to see nine familiar people standing by the doors of the hospital.

Chloe, Jake, and Madeline all looked tired, and Chloe still had her arm in a cast, but they were standing with determined looks on their faces. Brooke, along with the other soldiers she’d been synced with, looked worlds better than when they had last seen them. Brooke looked tired and a little sad, but was still smiling as she walked forward and stood in front of Jeremy.

“I know what you’re going to say,” she said before Jeremy could get a word in. “But we all  _ want _ to do this. We’ve had time to process, and rest, and if you want us to go back to doing that after this week is up, then fine. But until then, we’re going to help as many people as possible, okay?”

Jeremy looked around to see everyone giving him the same resolute and grim smile. When no one said anything for a couple seconds, he sighed. “Alright,” he said. “But, before anyone goes anywhere, I want to make one thing clear. A lot of these people are going to choose to go right back to the Squips when this week is over, and we are going to let them.”

Everyone stared at him.

“What are you talking about, Jeremy?” Rich asked.

“These people have been through enough,” Jeremy said. “No one has let them make an actual choice in years. I know we want to help them, and this probably is the best way how, but if we become just one more group of people telling them what to do as an ultimatum, we won’t be helping anyone.”

Everyone exchanged unsure glances, but Jeremy wasn’t backing down on this. They were trying to have a Rebellion™ of sorts, but mostly they were trying to help people. Telling these people yet again what they had to do and what was best for them wouldn’t be helping them.

Chloe was the first one who reacted, letting out a sigh. “I don’t like it,” she said. “But alright.”

Jeremy glanced around as everyone else either sighed or gave a reluctant nod.

And with that, they all headed upstairs. Paul had the room numbers of everyone, and handed out lists between people. Everyone had somewhere between 10-12 people to check up on, but so far the only person who was awake was the girl Jeremy had given the Mountain Dew Red to, Christine Canigula.

“Oh hell no,” Brooke said instantly. “I am not talking to her. She’s the worst.”

“I’m good,” Chloe said.

“Yeah, she’s… no,” Jake said.

“Nope,” said Madeline.

“Jesus, what did she do?” Rich asked.

Everyone exchanged a glance.

“She was a really common choice for a lot of bad punishments,” one of the other soldiers, Jessica, muttered. “She usually got picked for punishments for higher-ups, like managers.”

Everyone was silent for a moment as everyone looked uncomfortably away.

“Okay, I’ll talk to her,” Jeremy said. “You guys just keep an eye on everyone else. Brooke, how long did it take for everyone else to wake up when we gave the Mountain Dew Red to you?”

“We probably have at least another day or so,” Brooke said. “I mean, we’ll keep an eye out, but…”

Jeremy sighed. He didn’t like how small this window of time was getting. He checked the paper and found Christine’s room number, before starting down the hall.

When he got to Christine’s room, he was surprised to find that Jenna had followed him. “You’re coming?” he asked.

“I have to do something other than stand around and be useless,” Jenna said.

“You’re not being useless,” Jeremy said curiously.

Jenna waved him off. “You’re gonna need the help of a former squipped person anyway,” she said.

Jeremy hesitated. “Are you sure?”

Jenna nodded.

Jeremy sighed. “Alright, but take it easy.”

He opened the door to find Christine sitting up on her bed and watching the TV.

When she heard them walk in she turned to them and instantly started glaring.  _ “You.” _

Jenna’s breath caught behind him. Jeremy offered her his hand, which she pushed away. “I’m fine,” she said.

“Hi, Christine,” Jeremy said. “So, you probably have a lot of questions.”

“Get  _ out!” _ Christine snapped.

Jeremy held up his hands. “Okay,” he said, and he and Jenna both turned to leave.

“Woah, woah, woah, hold up.”

Jeremy stopped and turned back around to see Christine looked much more confused now than anything. “You… you’re just gonna leave?”

“You asked me to,” Jeremy said. He was about to turn again when Christine spoke up.

“But that’s not… that’s not how this works.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure it’s what I’m doing,” Jeremy said, turning again as Jenna did the same.

“Wait.”

Jeremy stopped and turned again.

“What… can I…”

“Yes?”

Christine stared at him for over half a minute. Jeremy waited patiently, and Jenna finally grabbed his hand and squeezed it.

“Why are you doing this?” Christine asked finally.

“Because Squips are doing awful things to people,” Jeremy said. “They did awful things to me, and my best friend, and Michael. And you.”

“But they didn’t,” Christine insisted. She started glaring again. “You don’t understand.”

“Okay, you’re right,” Jeremy said, starting forward slowly to make sure Jenna was still okay and Christine didn’t lash out again. “I’ve never had one. You want to explain it to me?”

Christine suddenly looked very wary. “No,” she said hesitantly.

“Okay.”

Christine stared at him. “What…” she muttered.

“So what do you want to talk about instead?” Jeremy asked. “Or do you want me to leave?”

“Go,” Christine said instantly.

Jeremy stopped walking forward and turned around.

“But uh… come back. Okay?”

“Okay,” Jeremy said, glancing over his shoulder to preface his statement.

Both him and Jenna walked out of the room and shut the door, after which Jeremy pulled Jenna into a nearby handicap family bathroom and turned to face her.

“Jenna, take a deep breath,” he said.

Jenna took a couple more shallow ones, but eventually, she slowed her breathing and locked the door behind them before sinking down to the ground. “I’m sorry,” she said, burying her head in her hands.

“You don’t need to be sorry.”

“But I didn’t even do anything! I didn’t even help!”

“You were freaking out, Jenna. Why did you go in there if you knew it would get to you?”

“I have to do something!” Jenna snapped, yanking her hands away from her face. “How else am I supposed to prove I was worth saving?!”

Jeremy reached for Jenna’s hands and pulled them out in front of her so she had to face him. “Jenna,” he said. “You were worth saving. You  _ are _ worth saving. You don’t have to prove it.”

“But that’s what I’m supposed to do,” Jenna said, pulling her legs up to her chest. “You don’t understand, that’s what I was good for. They used me as a spy, so I was supposed to find information. If I can’t give that to you, how does that make me worth saving?”

Jeremy sat down on the ground in front of Jenna, trying to ignore the fact that the floor probably wasn’t very clean. “Jenna, do you know how I told everyone else to rest and process what had happened before trying to help?”

Jenna nodded.

“That applies to you too. I gave a whole speech in the lobby about how we’re not going to force anyone to help us if they decide they don’t want to. We may be trying to stop the Squips, but our first and most important goal is getting rid of people’s Squips to _help_ them, and that applies to you too. Even if you knew absolutely nothing that would help us, I would still help you over and over again.”

Jenna looked hesitantly up at Jeremy. “Really?”

“Yes.”

Jenna buried her head in her knees. “I’m— I’m sorry, I shouldn’t—”

“It’s  _ okay. _ Jenna, I promise it’s okay.”

Jenna leaned forward and put her head on Jeremy’s shoulder, and Jeremy offered his hand out to her again. She grabbed it and squeezed it.

“Maybe you should take a couple days off,” Jeremy suggested.

“But I was supposed to talk to a bunch of people.”

“So we’ll all take a couple more. We’ve got this.”

“I don’t want to be alone,” Jenna whispered.

“I never said you would be alone. Just because you’re not fighting Squips doesn’t mean I’m going to abandon you. You’re my friend.”

Jenna took a deep breath. “Okay. Okay, maybe I need… maybe I need some time. Are you sure you’re gonna be okay without me?”

“Yes. And stop thinking about that, because even if we were going to struggle, I would tell you to do this anyway.”

Jeremy stood up, helping Jenna up with him as he did so. “Are you ready to go back to everyone else?”

Jenna smiled a little. “Yeah, let’s go.”


	16. Chapter 16

As it turns out, five hours of sleep a night wasn’t a lot. Michael lost count of how many times in the following days he fell asleep in class.

Jackson, somehow, seemed to bounce back from the lack of sleep with no impact. He must have been being kept together by sheer force of will at this point.

Losing the managers made it a lot harder to get everything done, especially considering the Squip wasn’t going to pick any new ones because it said that Jeremy and Rich were likely not going to stop and might take them out too. Especially since they had now gotten to all of the Enforcers.

On the bright side— well, for the Squip anyway— apparently they could expect about 54% of the Enforcers to still come back to help them after they got more Mountain Dew shipped in.

_ Why not just send someone to the hospital to try and stop Jeremy and Rich? _ Michael asked, because he was really bad at keeping his mouth shut when he was tired.

**An interesting thought. However, there is a chance that sending someone could actually be more harmful to our goals.**

_ How much of a chance? _

**Large enough that I am not going to risk it.**

Michael sighed and laid his head down on his desk again, trying to tune out the math teacher whose name he had forgotten droning on at the front of the room.  _ Whatever. _

Emery and Jackson were taking notice of the obvious fact that Michael never really had anything to say anymore. Whenever they asked, he just mumbled out some excuse about being tired and pulled out his notebook to write down something else the Squip was telling him he had to do that day. They didn’t seem to buy that, but who even cared? It would make no difference in anything whether they did or not.

Jeremy and Rich weren’t at school all week, most likely because the majority of visiting hours lined up with the school day. Michael tried his best to stamp out the tiny hope that they were making progress, because all it would do was make the Squip mad, but try as he might it stuck around, and he got more than a few shocks for it. Maybe it was better if he just didn’t think about them at all.

Tomorrow was Wednesday, anyway. The Enforcers that were coming back would do so and they would move on. Maybe that was for the best.

…

The week passed much more quickly than Jeremy would have liked, especially considering they could only be there for visiting hours. And the day that everyone was cleared to leave the hospital was either the day they’d suspected Mountain Dew would be available, or after that, so they were still severely limited. At least the fact that none of them got out before then meant no one would be going to a store and buying Mountain Dew themselves, which was a relief they hadn’t expected.

Jenna took the rest of the week off, which was a hindrance, but a necessary one. Jeremy spent most of the week talking to people who either got angry, or confused, or scared, or all at the same time. Chloe, Jake, and Madeline seemed to be making the most progress, which wasn’t surprising.

Jeremy stayed true to his word, and didn’t directly tell anyone that he thought they should get rid of their Squips. He mostly tried to be a presence to remind them they weren’t alone (unless they wanted to be), and he was pretty sure he managed to show a fair number of people that they didn’t have to be scared of him or what he would do to them.

He kept finding his way back to Christine. No one else wanted to talk to her, so he would have had to anyway, but more than that, he felt something familiar about her that he couldn’t place until almost the very end of the week, when he realized that it was because she reminded him of Michael.

Rich would have given him a half-glare and told Jeremy to stop focusing on Michael if he told him about it, so he didn’t. But Christine radiated suppressed energy. It was like there was a whole other personality bubbling under the surface of whatever she had become. Jeremy connected it to the Michael he saw whenever he’d been drinking— which is also something Rich would tell Jeremy to stop thinking about.

Christine was the last person he talked to on the last day they’d planned their visits. He also had one question that day that he’d told everyone to ask everyone they talked to. They needed to know how many people were going to drink Mountain Dew and turn the Squips back on. So far, Jeremy had gotten five ‘no’s and seven ‘yes’s which was about what he expected, but he didn’t push anyone, which seemed to surprise the people who were turning their Squips back on. And that wasn’t surprising to him.

He hadn’t asked Christine yet, though. Instead they were talking about Shakespeare.

“You should talk to Rich,” Jeremy said. “I think you two would get along.”

“Rich likes Shakespeare?” Christine asked, giving a half-smile.

“Oh, he never shuts up about him. Or you know, he didn’t. Before we got distracted by other things, and didn’t really have much time for hobbies.”

Christine bit her lip and looked away.

“But I bet he would love to talk to you about him,” Jeremy added.

“I don’t know,” Christine muttered.

“That’s alright.” Jeremy hesitated. “Christine… I need to ask you something.”

Christine looked like she knew exactly what he was talking about, but didn’t say anything in response.

“Do you think you’re going to go back to school and turn your Squip back on?”

Christine bit her lip. “I don’t know,” she muttered. “I know you… you have good intentions. But it’s hard to feel like you’re not trying to convince me of something just like…” she cut herself off.

“I understand. Unfortunately, we don’t have any other options,” Jeremy said. “I wish we did.”

Christine was silent for another moment. “My parents are keeping me home for another week,” she said. “To make sure that nothing else happens.”

It wasn’t really an answer one way or another, but Jeremy wasn’t going to push her for one. “Okay,” he said instead.

“But Jeremy… I do like you. I would like being friends if— if the opportunity arises.”

Jeremy smiled. “I would love to be friends with you.”

Christine smiled back at him and opened her mouth to say something else just before the door to her room opened and a nurse poked her head in. “Hi, Jeremy,” he said. “I think by this point you know what I’m going to say.”

Jeremy gave a half smile to the nurse before turning back to Christine. “Bye, Chrissy,” he said. “I hope I see you again.”

“Can I have a hug?” Christine asked.

Jeremy nodded, walked forward, and leaned down to give Christine a hug. They both stayed there for a good ten seconds as Christine squeezed the living daylights out of him, but Jeremy didn’t complain. Finally, he stood up and stepped back, waving to Christine as he left the room.

He met up with everyone bar Jenna and Matt in the lobby. “So, end of the week.” Everyone turned to face him as he walked over. “How are we feeling?”

Everyone exchanged a bunch of looks that seemed overall hopeful.

“I had four people tell me they weren’t going to turn their Squips back on,” Rich said.

“I had five and one maybe,” Jeremy said with a nod, and glanced over at Chloe.

They compared numbers and found at the end of everything, about 82 people were going to turn their Squips back on, 47 weren’t, and 21 weren’t going back to school right away and were giving it some more thought.

“So probably not as good as we hoped for,” Madeline said. “But still good.” She turned to Jeremy. “Are you sure you don’t want to try and get rid of the Mountain Dew again?”

“No,” Jeremy said firmly. “We’re going to let them make their own decision. And if some people want to turn their Squips back on, that’s their choice. If they come to regret in the end, we’ll be there to help with that too.”

Everyone seemed to accept that, if still somewhat regretfully.

“So, what’s the plan from here on out?” asked Rich.

“For tonight? Everyone is going home and going to sleep. It’s been a long week,” Jeremy said.

No one voiced protest to that, and Paul said he was going to pull the car around if anyone needed a ride.

No one other than Jeremy and Rich did, but as they were waiting for Paul to get back, Chloe, Jake, and Madeline all walked up to them.

“We’re going to come talk to you tomorrow,” Jake said. “There are some things that you need to know.”

“Are you sure?” Jeremy asked.

All of them nodded. “This is important,” Chloe said. “And time-sensitive. We can always tell you this and then rest again if we decide we need more time.”

Jeremy nodded. “Okay. I’ll text you my address.”

“Thanks,” Jake said as they all turned to leave. They waved at Jeremy, who waved back and then leaned against the wall next to his boyfriend, who he had barely seen all week.

“So this is not exactly how I planned to start dating someone,” Rich said, voicing Jeremy’s own thoughts.

Jeremy chuckled a little and turned to give Rich a kiss on the cheek. “I’ve missed you a ton,” he said quietly.

“Do you want to have a movie marathon tomorrow?”

“I think we’re supposed to be going back to school.”

“You need to,” came Paul’s voice, and Jeremy and Rich both turned to see him climbing out of the car that had pulled up. “You’ve missed a lot already. But I see no issues in you doing that Saturday, or tomorrow afternoon.”

Jeremy smiled, and slipped his hand inside Rich’s as they both walked towards the car.

“Jeremy,” Paul said, just before they both climbed into the backseat. “I am incredibly proud of you. You have made a lot of very mature decisions this week.”

Jeremy’s eyes widened in surprise. “Oh,” he said. “Um, thanks Dad.”

Paul smiled and pulled Jeremy into a quick hug before pulling back and smiling at him again. Jeremy smiled back.

Jeremy climbed into the backseat of the car after Rich, who snuggled up to his side. Jeremy smiled and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

“Keep it PG back there,” Paul called as he climbed into the front seat.

“Dad! Gross!” Jeremy called. “Just drive us home!”

…

“The Plan,” Chloe said.

“™,” Jeremy added. He could feel Rich rolling his eyes from his spot next to him on the couch.

“Is fairly complicated,” Chloe continued like he hadn’t spoken. “In theory it seems simple, but there’s a lot of logistics we had to work out. Enough so that I think we can safely say they’re not going to try to change it.”

“Okay,” Jenna said from her spot next to Jeremy. She was much more refreshed and had reassured Jeremy she did feel ready to help again, and would take it easy. “So what is it?”

Madeline held up a calendar where she had circled the date of November 16th. “This is the day it’s happening,” she said, pointing to it.

“November 16th?” Rich asked. “What’s significant about November 16th?”

“That’s the opening night of the school play,” Jake said. He was leaning against the mantle on the fireplace, behind Chloe, who was holding a notebook with a diagram of the school auditorium, and Madeline, who was holding her calendar. “That’s when they’re going to try and spread the Squips to people outside the school.”

“Because of the audience,” Jenna realized. “Fuck, they’re probably gonna put Squips in the food or something.”

“The only drink they’re serving is Mountain Dew,” Chloe said. “They’ll be in that.”

“You know, people do exist who don’t like soda,” Jeremy said.

“Yeah, that’s the second part of Stage Two,” Madeline said. “When all the audience members who have been Squipped essentially tackle and force-feed the ones who haven’t.”

“Jesus Christ,” Rich muttered.

“That’s why everyone was signing up for the play!” Jeremy realized. “I  _ knew _ that was weird.”

Madeline nodded. “That’s exactly ten weeks from now,” she said, flipping back to September. “And there are 419 people in school who still have Squips, not counting the Enforcers who might still turn their Squips back on.”

“Wow, you guys are on top of this,” Paul muttered from his spot on the other side of the couch.

“We can’t know how the syncing groups are changing,” Chloe said. “But on average we need to turn off the Squips of 42 people a week if we want to get to everyone before that day.”

“That can’t be feasible,” Paul said. “There’s too many variables that could get in the way, and that’s not accounting for Enforcers.”

“We know,” Jake said. He stood up, walked forward, and accepted the notebook being offered to him by Chloe. “So we decided to cut that in half. That brings 419 people to approximately 210. And that would mean 21 people every week, which is more doable.”

“We still can’t take on half the school,” Jenna said. “Unless we want to ask those other people to help us—”

“No,” Jeremy said instantly.

“Yeah, I figured you’d say that,” Jenna said.

“We don’t need to fight half the school,” Madeline said, taking the notebook from Jake and pointing at a small drawn rectangle outside the auditorium. “We just need to fight the people running the concession stand. That’ll stop everyone in the audience from being Squipped, cause some more seizures which will probably be pretty common by that point, and that’ll call off the play and give us more time.”

“Oh. Wow,” Rich said. “You guys  _ are _ good at this.”

“Well, it was literally our job for almost four years,” Chloe said.

“That… actually does sound possible,” Jeremy said, reaching forward and taking the notebook from Madeline to look at everything the three of them had written.

“I hate to say this,” Jenna said. “But we should probably not try and get any spies until after the play. We can’t count on them being synced with anyone, and it would use up too much of our resources too quickly while the Squips are still pretty tightly bound together. They’d be falling apart more after the Play if this works, which is when we can start focusing more on individuals.”

Jeremy sighed. “You’re probably right,” he admitted. “So who do we want to go after first?”

“I recommend Stacy Boiler,” Chloe said, flipping a page in the notebook. “She’s the head of a large group of people synced for a mission that would take a while. She’d be a great first candidate to take out a lot of people.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Jeremy said. He turned to Rich and Jenna, as well as glanced back over at Paul. “Do you think we can do this on our own?”

“We’re going to help,” Madeline said. “So you won’t have to.”

Jeremy gave them a look. “Are you sure?” he asked. “100%?”

“Yes,” Chloe said. “We had time to rest, and last week was… good.”

“Agreed,” Jake said. “I want to help other people get rid of these things. I’m not going to sit by while everything happens.”

Jeremy gave them all one more look to make sure they meant it, but they seemed sincere. “Promise me you’ll still take it easy?” he asked.

They all nodded.

“Alright.” He stood up and walked over to look at the notebook with them more closely. “What did you have in mind?”


	17. Chapter 17

Stacy Boiler was a senior. Jeremy had honestly never heard anything about her until he started fighting Squips, but to be fair, he’d also never heard of most people at this school until he started fighting Squips. Stacy was apparently pretty high up there in the ranks—as a soldier, anyway, which had its own separate totem pole as well as being part of the main totem pole of the Squip army.

Because of her high-rank-within-the-low-ranks, Stacy Boiler got assigned higher level missions that took more people to complete, and she was therefore synced to more people.

Jake shared a Pre-calculus class with her, and that plus the fact that he was faster and stronger led to Jeremy reluctantly agreeing that he could be the one to get her the Mountain Dew Red.

She was currently synced to about ten people, and the way that the seven of them (including Brooke) were laid out in the school, they were relatively close to all of them. The problem was, even with Brooke, who was used to heavy lifting, and Jake, who was pretty naturally strong, there was no way they could get all ten of them in the best circumstances.

“I hate to say this,” Jeremy said. “But we did know we weren’t going to be able to help everyone. We might have to accept that we might not be able to get to all ten of these people right now, and we’ll have to come back for them another time.”

Jeremy looked around to find everyone seemed to agree with him, and also that no one seemed to like it.

“So, Brooke, Rich and I both share classes with some of the others that Stacy is synced to, and Chloe, Madeline, and Jenna are both close to the others location-wise. I’ll text you when we’re going to go for it and give you a couple minutes to get in position, okay?”

Chloe, Jenna, and Madeline all nodded, and with that, they all headed into the school from where they had been planning in front of it. Everyone stared at them as they walked down the hall, but no one did anything.

“You’d think they’d try a little harder to stop us,” Rich muttered, stepping closer to Jeremy’s side.

“Maybe they think their plan is more important?” Jeremy muttered back.

“I guess, but it’s still weird. I mean, we are the biggest threat to their plan.”

“Maybe they still think we have a low chance of success?”

_ “How? _ We took out their managers.”

Jeremy shrugged. “Just be on guard. Maybe they’re planning something we don’t know about yet.”

Most of the morning passed normally. If Jeremy didn’t know everything that was going on, he wouldn’t have said there was anything weird about this school.

He was walking to his English class after lunch, which was when they were planning to carry out their plan, when he passed a Mountain Dew bottle that was completely full, sitting on top of a trash can in the middle of the hallway. Jeremy picked it up as he passed and dropped it into his backpack. He was looking suspiciously around, because there was no way that was a coincidence, when his phone buzzed.

He glanced down at it to see Jake texting him.

Jake: Uh, dude, everyone here is suddenly holding a bottle of mountain dew

Jeremy froze.

Jermey: Get out of there now

Jake: But I haven’t tried to turn off Stacy’s squip yet

Jeremy: Jake get out of there NOW

Jeremy turned instantly to the group chat and told everyone to meet in front of the school while starting to sprint toward Jake’s Pre-calculus class.

Sure enough, as he rounded the corner, Jake was running from the classroom with about nine people hit on his tail. Jeremy grabbed his arm in passing and dragged them both towards the front of the school, not even stopping to open the doors, and instead slamming himself into them to force them open.

The man in the front office looked up in surprise as they passed, and Jeremy didn’t stop to see if he would be more surprised when the people chasing them ran past him.

Thankfully, everyone else was already there, because there wasn’t time to do more than let go of Jake’s hand and wave at everyone with a “Come on!” as they all sprinted towards Brooke’s mother’s car.

Brooke yanked the front door open and jumped inside as Jeremy grabbed the backdoor and everyone piled on top of each other back there. Jeremy was about to turn back around to shut the door when Rich screamed.

Jeremy whirled around and saw someone grabbing his arm. Jeremy yanked him forward with more strength than he thought he possessed and slammed the door shut.

Brooke turned the car on and sped towards the exit just before everyone started to surround the spot where the car was a split second ago.

It was a couple seconds of everyone breathing heavily and processing before Brooke spoke up. “I’m taking us back to Jeremy’s house,” she said. “Any objections?”

No one said anything.

“Okay,” Brooke said, pulling out of the exit to the school.

Paul was pretty surprised when everyone showed up, as he wasn’t supposed to leave for another ten minutes to get them at the school.

Jeremy pulled him into the kitchen to explain what happened, and after doing so, they both headed back into the living room.

Jeremy clapped his hands together. “Okay! So,” he said. “That didn’t exactly go the way we intended.”

“We should have seen this coming!” Brooke groaned, leaning back on the couch. “Of course they weren’t going to sit back and take it while we took out all the Squips.”

“Hey, it’s alright,” Jeremy said. “We’re better prepared now, and we can do better next time.”

“Oh, yeah, like there’s gonna be a next time,” Chloe grumbled. “We got our asses handed to us on their very first counterattack.”

“We lost the element of surprise at the same time they gained it,” Jeremy said. “Of course we didn’t do well. But now we’re on even ground and we have more of an idea what they’re capable of. Now this will be more of an actual fight.”

“9 people versus 419. Yeah, I love those odds,” Madeline muttered.

“You guys.” Jeremy walked forward to stand in front of everyone. “You’re giving up way too easily. We knew these weren’t all going to be wins. I get why the morale would take a bit of a hit, but we can do this.”

Everyone still looked more than a little unsure.

“I lost the Mountain Dew Red,” Jake muttered.

“That’s okay! We still have ten more bottles.”

Jake sighed.

“Okay, how about this? I’ll go get our notes, we figure out where we went wrong, and start planning our next move.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” Paul said from over Jeremy’s shoulder.

“I’ll come too,” Rich said. He hopped up, and despite Jeremy waving him off, followed him up the stairs.

Jeremy had been hoping for a minute alone, but it was fine. Rich would have figured it out that night anyway. So when Jeremy shut the door behind them, he walked over to his bed, grabbed his pillow, and threw it at the wall. Then he sat down and buried his head in his hands.

“Hey,” Rich said, in a tone that meant he had absolutely seen this coming. “It’s alright.”

“I’m a fucking idiot!” Jeremy hissed, glaring up at Rich. “I knew giving Jake the Mountain Dew Red was a bad idea! He almost got squipped again!”

“But he didn’t,” Rich said, walking forward and taking Jeremy’s hands to pull him up. “No one got squipped, and no one got hurt.”

_ “This _ time.”

“Jeremy.” Rich pulled Jeremy closer to him. “No one blames you. No one’s mad at you. It’s not your fault.”

Jeremy winced. “I—”

“I promise.”

Jeremy stopped talking and was quiet for a moment. “Okay,” he whispered. He pulled Rich into a hug that Rich reciprocated immediately.

They both stood there for a moment before Jeremy sighed and ducked down a little, putting his head on Rich’s shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he muttered.

“What? Why?”

“You shouldn’t have to deal with this, I just… I should be over all of this by now.” Jeremy pulled away and walked over to his bed. “I should be okay. I’m sorry.”

“Jeremy, you don’t have to be okay.” Rich walked over and sat on the bed next to him. “I know you’ve heard me say this before, but we are going through a lot right now. It’s okay to get overwhelmed.”

“You’re not,” Jeremy protested. “You’ve gone through some of the same things I have, and you’re totally fine.”

“I am completely fixated on something entirely unrelated to what I’ve gone through. I haven’t even seen my father in weeks. You have to see Michael almost daily, and have to deal with things directly related to what you went through every single day. Of course you’re getting overwhelmed.” Rich pulled Jeremy into a side hug, and Jeremy curled up enough that he could rest his head on his shoulder. “If it helps, I’m probably going to be hit with a ton of shit later once I have a moment to breathe.”

Jeremy laughed a little. “That’s probably not a good thing.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think there’s much I can do about it. Just know that I’m here, okay?”

“I am too,” Jeremy replied easily. They both sat there for another couple minutes before Jeremy sighed and stood up.

“Okay,” he walked over and grabbed another bottle of Mountain Dew Red, slipping it into his backpack, and grabbing the notes from the desk. “For now we need to go get morale back up. You ready?”

“Let’s do this.” Rich walked forward and took Jeremy’s hand, giving it a squeeze as they both started for the steps.

…

By Monday they had all planned their next move. They were going to need to make it look like they were hit by what had happened harder than they were, which would hurt their numbers overall but give them some chance of gaining some ability back, and maybe a little more element of surprise again. That meant the next week was Squip-free. No countermoves, no plans, and no one aside from Jeremy and Rich going to school. They planned after school study sessions to make sure everyone stayed as caught up as they could.

And other than that, they all took a breather.

Jeremy and Rich spent a good six hours playing Warcraft on Sunday afternoon. Jeremy got back a good amount of the experience that he’d lost when he lost his account, though it was probably easier considering he’d done a lot of it before. Jenna came over and watched them for a while, and then they all moved to the living room and camped out in front of a movie.

School on Monday was almost boring again. No one approached them, and they spent most of the day just taking notes on the actual schoolwork and watching people to see if they could learn anything.

They went home Monday night and had their study session and everyone ate the pizza Paul ordered before picking another movie and staying up until two in the morning.

Tuesday passed mostly the same, and so did Wednesday. But instead of finding it mind numbing and impossible to sit through, it was a nice break. They really had been dealing with a lot lately, and it was a bit of a relief to not have to. They’d planned their next move on the following Monday, so they didn’t have much to do until then.

Everything fell apart on Thursday.

It started normally. Rich and Jeremy went to bed separately, one of them inevitably had a nightmare in the middle of the night so they ended up in the same bed by the morning, Rich got up at a godforsaken hour and grabbed a book to read so he wouldn’t wake Jeremy up, and then dragged him out of bed for school at a slightly later godforsaken hour. They ate breakfast with Paul, and made it to school much too close to the bell ringing.

The only different part about that day was that Jeremy had an English test, so he had to be in the classroom at the same time as Michael. He was more than a little nervous about it.

“Hey, you got this,” Rich said. “Just get to the class late and sit as far away from him as possible.”

“But what if the only seat left is the one right next to him?” Jeremy asked nervously.

“Then… get to the class really early and sit way in the back.”

“He could just sit next to me.”

“Then just get there after him and try to sit far away. That’s probably your best bet.”

Jeremy sighed and admitted he was probably right. He gave Rich a quick kiss and headed to class.

But to his surprise, Michael wasn’t in English at all that day. Was he sick again? Jeremy texted Rich to see if he had any theories, but Rich didn’t reply. It took Jeremy a second to realize that he also had a test that day, in math. He texted him a quick apology, left his phone off for the moment, and finished his test in appreciation of the Michael-less area.

He actually felt surprisingly confident about his English test that time. Rich had been a super helpful study partner, and while he would probably still get the lowest grade their due to the fact that he didn’t have a Squip to help him, he felt fairly confident his grade would be good. He still finished the test after everyone else, but again, no Squip to help him, so he wasn’t super concerned about it.

The rest of the day went alright, but he still didn’t get any texts from Rich, which made him more and more anxious as the day went on.

He texted everyone else at one point, only to find that they hadn’t heard anything either, which kicked his anxiety into overdrive.

He finally texted Rich at the end of the day to meet him outside the school, and he was getting ready to call him after five minutes of him not showing up when suddenly someone who was very decidedly not Rich appeared.

“Why Jeremy, it’s been too long.”

Jeremy jumped and whirled around as Michael approached.

“How are you?” he asked.

Jeremy swallowed. “Depends. How are you?”

Michael smirked. “Aw, are you trying to be manipulative? You’re so cute.”

Jeremy shoved his hands in his pockets to keep them from shaking. “What do you want, Michael?”

“Well, if you’re asking me that with no limits, I want you squipped and out of the way,” Michael said. Jeremy swallowed and tried to appear calm. “But since I doubt you’ll go easily, I’ll have to settle for someone else.”

Jeremy furrowed his brows in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, Jeremy. Did you honestly think you could avoid us forever? That’s rich.”

Something about the way Michael emphasized the last word made Jeremy’s blood run cold. “What did you do?”

Michael started to smile.

Jeremy’s eyes widened. “Where’s Rich?!”

Michael chuckled and leaned forward, probably to do something along the lines of pat Jeremy condescendingly on the cheek, but Jeremy was used to far worse things from Michael leaning towards him, and he reacted too fast for Michael to reach him.

_ “Don’t touch me!” _

He reached out and  _ shoved, _ and suddenly Michael was on the ground. He stared upwards as Jeremy stumbled back with the same shock that was reflected on Michael’s face. But it would only be a couple seconds before it darkened in anger, and no one would be there to stop him.

Jeremy turned and sprinted towards the parking lot, and thank the heavens, his father was waiting in their car not far from the school.  Jeremy threw open the side door and jumped inside, slamming it shut after him.

“Jeremy?” Paul asked in concern. “Was that Michael? Are you okay? Where’s Rich?”

Jeremy burst into tears. “I don’t  _ know!” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that concludes the end of part 1. There will now be a three month hiatus before I post again, please use this time to reflect on why you would read something so horribly sad and return with an essay as to why Jeremy Heere is the best character in Be More Chill.
> 
> Nah, I'm just being stupid.


	18. Chapter 18

Consciousness returned to Rich slowly, although it felt like getting hit by a truck. He wasn’t sure where he was other than the fact that it was dark and he had the biggest headache of his life. He took a couple breaths and sat up. It would be great if his heart rate would slow down, because he needed to figure out where he was—

“Hello, Rich.”

Rich froze. “Michael.” He tried to sound as calm as Michael himself did, and failed miserably as his voice came out in a growl.

“So I guess you’re wondering where you are,” Michael said.

Rich didn’t reply, and instead took a moment to breathe and try to assess where he was before Michael inevitably told him in a smug tone. He was on a bed, in what appeared to be a basement. He didn’t think he was squipped… yet. But Michael was here, so there was no telling how long that would last.

“I’m guessing that I’m in some kind of bedroom, considering I’m sitting on a bed,” Rich said, trying to make himself sound deadpan and exasperated at the same time. He managed well enough. Michael seemed annoyed by it.

“You’re in my bedroom,” he said, rolling his eyes.

Rich was about to bite back some snappy remark when he paused. There was probably a reason he wasn’t squipped yet. If he wanted to keep it that way, it probably wouldn’t help his chances to be snappy and sarcastic with Michael. He bit his lip and said nothing.

Michael didn’t seem to care about Rich’s difference in response, and instead he picked up a glass of water that was next to where he was sitting at a desk and walked it over to Rich, handing it to him.

“No thank you,” Rich said, nudging it away. “I would prefer not to be squipped today.”

Michael stared at him, seeming unimpressed. “It’s just water,” he said. Rich still didn’t take it from him.

Michael sighed and set it over on the nightstand. “Fine, just suffer through your headache then.”

“How did you know that?”

“I have a Squip, Rich.”

Rich crossed his arms over his chest and backed away from Michael on the bed. “What do you want?”

“I’m sure you have enough evidence by now to put the pieces together,” Michael said. “We’re going to give you a Squip.”

“Then why not do it already?”

Michael sighed. “There has been—”

Whatever he was about to say would unfortunately be lost to history, because a second later he paused in a way that was clearly not natural. He stood in front of Rich for a good ten seconds looking at nothing in particular.

Rich raised an eyebrow. “Uh, hello? Did you die or something?”

Michael said nothing, and Rich looked hesitantly at the steps that lead to a door. “Can I leave if you’re dead?”

Finally, Michael moved again. But instead of standing up taller or glaring at Rich or slamming him against the wall and shoving a Squip down his throat, he seemed to deflate. He sighed and walked back over to the desk chair, leaned back in it, and gave another sigh, this one seeming more relieved.

“Uh…” Rich said slowly, trying to figure out if he should run screaming.

Michael looked up at him, seeming much more hesitant and generally tired than he was thirty seconds ago. “Hey, Rich.”

“What? Didn’t we already do that part?”

“No, that was my Squip.” Michael leaned back in the chair again. “I just made a deal.”

“That… seems like a terrible idea.”

“You don’t have to take a Squip.”

“That is the greatest idea I have ever heard.” Rich paused a second later after realizing that sounded too good to be true. He narrowed his eyes. “What’s the catch?”

Michael smiled a little. “You’re smarter than I was,” he said quietly. He pushed himself upright again using the desk and turned to face Rich. “So here’s the deal. The main reason my Squip was trying to Squip you was to get you away from Jeremy and the whole Rebellion group.”

“Why not just go after Jeremy? He’s the head of this operation.”

“If it went after Jeremy, there was a huge chance you would be absolutely livid and work twice as hard to take the whole system down. Since it went after you, there’s a much higher chance that Jeremy will just fall apart.”

Rich stared at him, his mouth hanging open a little. “That is  _ so fucked up.” _

Michael gave a bitter chuckle. “Welcome to my life,” he said. “But the deal is that you don’t have to actually be squipped as long as Jeremy thinks you are.”

Rich shook his head instantly. “Fuck no. You’re telling me to avoid Jeremy on purpose? No goddamn way.”

“It’s either that or I give you a Squip and you’re forced to do it anyway,” Michael said. “There’s not really a way to win here. There’s never a way to win.”

“That’s fucking depressing. I’m not giving up that easily.”

“Don’t try to run, my Squip will just take over, catch you, and Squip you. I’m telling you, back off and do what you’re told. It’s easier that way.”

Rich shook his head. “You are… wow. I reiterate, that’s fucking depressing.”

Michael raised his hands palm up in a sad version of a shrug. “What do you want from me?”

“Do you want the short list?”

Michael pulled his legs up onto his desk chair and rested his chin in them, which as a result made him appear smaller than Rich had ever seen him before.

He took a minute to take in Michael-without-a-Squip. He looked small, and… sad. Like those little glimpses of him Rich had once seen when he was paying close attention to everyone in the school. But there was a new sense of hopelessness that Rich hadn’t gotten from him before. What exactly had happened to him in between then and now?

“Dude,” Rich said. “You’re fucking depressing.”

Michael blinked slowly at him. “Yeah, you’ve said that twice already.”

“It bears repeating again. What… what happened to you?”

Michael stared at him. “I lost my favorite documentary,” he deadpanned.

“Google it,” Rich shot back immediately. “Easy fix.”

Michael chuckled a little, though it didn’t sound as bitter this time. “I like you,” he said.

“Uh…” Rich looked down and fidgeted with his hands, not quite sure if he could return the sentiment yet, or if he even wanted to.

“So. About the deal I made?”

Rich looked hesitantly up at Michael. “What did you even agree to do in exchange?”

Michael winced. “Something stupid,” he muttered.

“I would expect nothing less. What was it?”

Michael sighed. “We’re short on Enforcers right now, so I’ve agreed to start taking part in some of the punishments dished out until we get the rest of the Enforcers back.”

Rich laughed, and Michael glanced over in slight surprise. “And that’s something it had to  _ fight _ you on? I would have thought you’d be used to that by now.”

Something in Michael’s face shifted, and he looked down and mumbled something that sounded an awful lot like “Sorry,” but that couldn’t be what he said… right?

At least he had successfully avoided answering anything about the deal for a while longer. He tried to subtly check for his phone while Michael was still staring at his feet, but couldn’t find it anywhere on him, which wasn’t really surprising.

It was a while before Michael said anything else, and when it was, it wasn’t by his own design. Rich was pretty sure he would have been content to sit there wallowing in… self loathing? Is that what this was? That didn’t seem very Michael-like. But at some point, a voice called from upstairs.

Michael jerked upwards. “I’ll be up in a second, Nanay!” he called. He turned back to Rich, looking much more desperate than before. “Are you going to do this or not? Because if my mothers find out I kidnapped you, I think even they will notice something’s up.”

Rich looked at Michael for a second as he weighed his options. Michael’s moms noticing something was happening didn’t sound like a terrible thing, but the Squip might easily be able to smooth it over, and then he’d just end up squipped. But he didn’t want to agree to this deal right now, or maybe ever. He needed more time.

“I’ll go along with it for now,” he said finally. “So I can make a decision later.”

Michael seemed to accept that, and then stood up, and as Rich watched him he put on another personality. Suddenly he looked like the kind of person Rich would call a happy-go-lucky kid who loved his parents and his life.

…It was freaky.

Rich hesitantly followed Michael up the steps, and into the kitchen, where one of his mothers was flipping a pancake on a pan on the stove, and the other was mixing what must have been another batch of batter in a bowl. They turned when the two of them walked in. “Who’s this?” the one flipping pancakes asked.

“Oh, uh,” Michael suddenly sounded nervous. “This is Rich. Rich this is my Nanay Analyn,” he pointed to the woman flipping pancakes, “and my mom Rachel,” he pointed to the one mixing batter before turning back to Analyn. “He, um. He was kicked out of his house, so I kinda told him he could stay here for a while if he needed to?”

Analyn’s eyes widened, and she set her spatula down. “Hang on, he was kicked out?”

Rich smiled a little at her. It probably looked fairly anxious, which was actually probably appropriate for the situation. “Uh… my dad found out I was bi?” he said hesitantly.

Something in Analyn’s face shifted and she walked towards Rich. “Oh sweetheart, I am so sorry,” she said. “Of course you can stay here, that’s horrible.”

“I’m so sorry that happened to you,” Rachel said, walking forward behind Analyn. “But you can stay here as long as you need. He might just need time.”

Analyn nodded. “That’s true. He may come around. And if he doesn’t, you’re welcome to stay here.”

…Wow. Rich felt a little dirty lying to these people who were willing to instantly take him in without knowing anything else about him. He’d just have to try and remember the fact that he didn’t want an evil brain robot. Shouldn’t be too hard.

He and Michael ended up in the dining room while his mothers were finishing making pancakes in the other room. “I feel kinda dirty,” Rich admitted.

“You get used to it,” Michael said.

“Lying or feeling dirty?”

“Yes.”

“Okay,” Rich muttered, looking down at the table and trying not to think about everything that was happening right now. As well as how dangerously close he was to being squipped. And the fact that he was lying to these women who were now letting him stay in their home. That he had gotten to by way of being kidnapped. And Jeremy was probably worried sick. And if he took this deal it was only going to make him more worried sick.

Jesus Christ, everything about this was terrifying.

Dinner was… fine. There was a layer of fake over the entire thing that Rich wasn’t sure how Michael could stand, but it was… fine. After dinner he and Michael went back down to the basement after his moms made sure he could let them know if he needed anything. It was admittedly kind of funny that the thing he needed the most was to get out of their house. He slept on an air mattress until they could get him a bed, because apparently where Rich went, bed shopping followed.

He made sure Michael was asleep before sneaking out of the basement. He was now kicking himself for not asking if Squips were powered down when someone slept, but it was a risk he was going to have to take. He snuck upstairs and tried about five rooms before he found Analyn and Rachel’s bedroom. He took one of the phones off the nightstand and snuck out the back door of the house before calling Paul.

The phone rang five times as Rich held his breath, before finally Paul picked up. “Hi, I’m sorry Analyn but I really don’t have time to talk right now—”

“Hey, it’s me,” Rich hissed.

There was a good three seconds of silence. “Rich?!”

There were many cries of “RICH!” in the background that confirmed that Paul was not the only one in the room.

“Shhh!” Rich hissed. “You can’t be loud, I could wake someone up!”

“Sorry!” came the much quieter voice of Jeremy. The phone must have been put on speaker. “What happened? Where are you? Are you okay? Are you squipped?”

“I’m not squipped,” Rich said. “Yet. I’m at Michael’s house. He kind of kidnapped me.”

There was a moment of silence, and Rich couldn’t read the tone. “Are you okay?” Jeremy asked softly.

“Physically, I’m fine. He offered me a deal.”

“His Squip offered you a deal?” Jenna asked.

“No,  _ he _ offered me a deal.”

“Woah,” came Chloe’s voice. She sounded impressed. “You talked to the  _ actual _ Michael?” There was a muffled sound of clapping from the other side of the phone. “Dude, props.”

“Yeah, well, it wasn’t exactly my favorite conversation of all time. The whole reason they got to me was to try and mess with Jeremy, so in order for me to not be squipped I’m supposed to make Jeremy think I am.”

Jeremy mumbled a quiet, “Oh, awesome.”

“Hey, stop that Jeremy. I can hear you blaming yourself from here. Brooke, do me a favor and give him a hug every time he starts to blame himself.”

“Wha— hey—”

“I’m on it.”

There was a couple seconds of silence before Jeremy muttered, “Actually this is really nice.”

“So what’s your plan?” Madeline asked. “How are you going to get out of there?”

Rich took a deep breath. “I’m not.”

There was another moment of silence, but this time Rich could read the tone easily.

_ “Excuse _ me?” Jake asked in disbelief.

“If I try to escape, they’ll just find me and squip me, and I doubt there’s gonna be a deal the second time. My best chance to stay unsquipped and actually keep helping is to take a page from Jenna’s book.”

“Believe I have to prove myself worth saving?”

“Spy.”

There was another pause that Rich was getting really sick of. Then there was the sound of someone taking the phone and footsteps leading somewhere.

“Rich, it’s just me and Dad now,” Jeremy said quietly. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. I can do this. I’ll take his deal, and since you already know I’m okay, you can keep working and not… you know, have a total breakdown. Plus, this way I can watch Michael, if you still want to know about how he’s doing.”

“I’m more worried about you.”

Rich smiled a little. “I’ve got this. Do you trust me?”

“Of course. That’s not why I’m worried.”

“We’re going to be worried about you no matter what,” Paul said. “But I think this is the right decision, or as close to one as you can make here. I believe in you. Just be careful. When we see you again, I would prefer for it to be without a Squip.”

“Me too,” Rich said with a smile. “And thanks.”

There was another pause, and Jeremy spoke up again. “It’s just me now.”

“You’re gonna have to work a lot more covertly now,” Rich said. “You probably can’t unsquip anyone else for awhile. You’ll have to come up with another plan.”

“I know. We’ll keep you updated as often as we can.”

Rich let out a shaky breath. “Jeremy?” he whispered.

“Yeah?” Jeremy whispered back.

“I’m scared.”

“Me too.”

Neither of them said anything for a minute, but this time Rich didn’t mind the silence. He took in Jeremy’s shaky breathing and found a little bit of solace in the fact that he wasn’t alone in his fear.

“I need to be back in the basement in case Michael wakes up,” Rich murmured.

“Rich, don’t let him hurt you. Don’t… he could try.”

Rich nodded. “I know. I’ll be careful. Hey, Jeremy?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

Jeremy sniffed, and Rich realized he was crying, and Jeremy was too. “I love you too,” Jeremy whispered. “Please stay safe.”

“I’ll do my best,” Rich said. He hesitated another ten seconds as he pulled the phone slowly away from his ear, but saying goodbye, or see you soon, didn’t feel right. “I love you,” he said one more time, and on Jeremy’s second “I love you too,” he hung up.


	19. Chapter 19

Jeremy’s bed felt cold when he woke up. It had felt cold for a long time now. He pulled himself out of his bed with a little more anxiousness than he felt yesterday, as was the norm. He walked over to his calendar and crossed off another day.

November 1st. A little more than two weeks left until the Play where they had to make a move, and they still had no idea how they were going to do it. None of the Enforcers who had said “maybe” had turned their Squips back on, including Christine, and all of them reached out and said they could be counted on for support if they needed it. Jeremy was starting to think he might have to take them up on that offer, because he wasn’t sure what else they could do.

They had a total of 68 Enforcers helping them, as well as the soldiers they had taken out along with with Brooke, which brought their number up to 74, as well as Chloe, Jake, Madeline, Paul, and Matt said he was willing to drive down, which made their total number 79. Jeremy wasn’t going to count Rich in case… just in case. 79 people wasn’t anything to sneeze at, but it wasn’t going to do much against 340 (maybe 341) people. Things were honestly looking hopeless.

They hadn’t heard from Rich in awhile. He must have been spending more time with Michael for one reason or another. Jeremy hoped it was for a good reason, and not because Michael was… well.

Christine had been spending a lot of time at the house lately, as well as Jenna. Jeremy probably wasn’t much fun to hang out with, since two of the people he cared most about were now either the leader of the robot army, or being held hostage by one. Jenna and Christine didn’t seem to mind though, and sometimes when there wasn’t something important to do, the three of them would just sit on Jeremy’s bed in silence, usually touching in some way or other.

Christine told him she was still trying to figure out the world around her, and a lot of the time she still wasn’t very sure where she stood in regards to, well, reality.

“I get that,” Jeremy would tell her. “Sometimes Michael would convince me things that happened were something I dreamed. Like the night my mom left in freshman year. I’m still not really sure what happened that night. But anyway, there were times I couldn’t really be sure what was real. It’s… scary.”

Christine nodded. “Yeah,” she muttered. “I think that was the Squip’s whole plan with you.”

“What do you mean?” Jeremy asked curiously.

“Well, I’m pretty sure the whole reason it had Michael… um, treat you like that was to make sure you couldn’t be a real threat. And after you left Michael it figured you’d be dealing with too much fallout to actually be able to do anything.”

“Huh.” Jeremy thought back to the days after he’d first left Michael. It had been a nightmare, in many ways. He’d leaned on Rich a lot. “That’s… clever,” he muttered. “Guess it wasn’t counting on Rich, huh?”

“Guess not,” Christine said. She hesitated. “About the reality thing.”

“Yeah?”

“Something, uh.” Christine stopped. “Nevermind.”

“What is it?” Jeremy asked.

Christine shook her head. “It’s stupid.”

“Hey, I’m sure it’s not,” Jeremy said. “I want to hear it.”

Christine sighed. “Something I’ve been trying to do is think about the world through Shakespeare,” she mumbled. “Like, ‘all the worlds a stage,’ ‘love all, trust a few, do wrong to none’, um. ‘To thine own self be true.’”

“See, that’s not stupid. You told me you like Shakespeare. And a lot of that sounds like fairly good advice to me. Especially that last one.”

Christine smiled a little and rubbed the back of her neck. “It’s hard.”

“Believe me, I know.”

Christine sighed and leaned over to rest her head on Jeremy’s shoulder. “Thanks for being patient with me,” she said quietly.

“Of course. It would be really shitty and hypocritical if I wasn’t.”

Christine chuckled in the way that said there wasn’t actually anything funny going on and pulled her legs up on the bed before she tucked herself into Jeremy’s side. Jeremy wrapped an arm around her.

…

Rich staying in his house was just the right kind of horrible. Michael did his best to avoid him most of the time, because he didn’t really seem to want to talk to him. He couldn’t exactly blame him, given, well, everything. But it didn’t help with the fact that Michael didn’t think that he’d ever felt more alone.

Jeremy was gone. Emery was incredibly busy trying to get everything in order for the 16th. Jackson had bounced back after people had stopped being unsquipped, but was so excited about everything in a way that Michael had never related to less. And Rich, who now slept on a bed across the basement from Michael, never gave him the time of day.

Michael didn’t find it hard to ignore him, as he was also very busy, and when he wasn’t, he mostly just laid on his bed and scrolled through movies on Netflix without ever picking one to watch, so all he had to do was pretend Rich didn’t exist. Not exactly difficult, he’d been forcing the school to do it for the last five years until recently.

The hardest time to ignore Rich was at night. Because despite the fact that this is when people are usually quiet, Michael was never more aware of the fact that there was another person in his room than when he could hear his breathing when he was trying to sleep.

Michael rolled over onto his stomach for about the sixth time and sighed when Rich suddenly snapped, “Do you have to do that?”

Michael blinked and pushed himself up onto his elbow. “What?”

“I can hear you moving every goddamn time you roll over. You’re utterly silent the rest of the time, do you have to start making noises when I try to sleep?”

“Sorry. It’s not like you make much of an effort to muffle your breathing.”

“Breathing is a little different from rolling over every two seconds.” Rich crossed his arms and sat up across the room and sat up. “Can’t you fucking leave me alone?”

“You seriously want to be left alone? I would have thought the boredom and isolation would have gotten to you by now.”

“I’d rather be bored out of my mind than have to talk to you.”

“Gee, thanks,” Michael muttered, although he had to admit he wasn’t really surprised. He’d pretty much earned it by now.

“Ugh,  _ fuck, _ would you  _ stop it?” _

Michael stared at Rich in slight exasperation. “I already did. What do you want from me?”

“No, I  _ want— _ I want you to stop being so fucking  _ pathetic, _ because it makes it really hard to stay mad at you!”

Michael sat up all the way and blinked at Rich. “Uh, sorry?”

“Just— how are you not angry? How are you just accepting all of this? Do you not want your actual life back? What conclusion am I supposed to get from that other than you don’t really mind all of this as much as Jeremy seems to think you do?”

Michael felt like he’d been slapped. “What—” he stopped. He collapsed back onto his bed after realizing his elbow was getting tired. “I already told you, it’s just easier,” he muttered. “I’m  _ tired, _ okay?”

There was a moment of silence before he heard Rich lay back down. “I was trying to get you to yell at me,” he said quietly.

Michael didn’t reply.

Rich hadn’t seemed to expect that either, because a second later he spoke again. “You’re really not okay, are you?”

“What do you think?”

There was another pause. There seemed to be a lot of those right now, but Michael didn’t really care enough to try and fill the space.

“No, we’re not doing this,” Rich said suddenly.

Michael looked across the room in confusion. “Doing what?”

“We’re not going to do that thing where we bond while we’re both stuck here. Because that is called Stockholm Syndrome, and I will not be participating in that today.”

Michael gave Rich a deadpan look that he probably couldn’t see in the dark. “You do realize you’ve kidnapped dozens of people and switched them to your side, right?”

“That— was different! Those people didn’t switch sides by force!”

“Uh-huh, sure.”

“Look, I just—” Rich sighed. “For a long time, I thought you took the Squip by choice. The fact that you didn’t means the implications are… bad. For Jeremy and you.”

“Implications.”

“…Yeah.”

“Okay,” Michael muttered, and rolled over to go back to sleep.

Rich didn’t say anything else.

…

Michael woke up in the middle of the night to the Squip shocking him. He pulled his phone over and glanced at the time.

“I still have two hours,” he muttered, too tired and in pain to care that he was speaking out loud.

**We have something to do.**

_ That can only be done at night? _

**Yes.**

Michael just barely managed to keep himself from groaning, in order to not wake up Rich, and climbed from his bed onto the floor. He pulled on some shoes and a heavy jacket, and didn’t bother changing his pants since he’d worn sweatpants to bed anyway.

He took his car and started towards an unknown destination with the Squip directing his movements. He worried for half a second about waking someone up, but no one back at his house probably cared where he was or what he was doing, so he let it go.

Ten minutes later he stopped outside Jeremy’s house.

_ What are we doing here? _

**His spare key is still under his mat. We’re just taking care of a variable.**

_ What variable? _

The Squip didn’t answer, and instead forced Michael out of the car, up towards Jeremy’s front porch, and into the house.

Michael hadn’t seen Jeremy’s house in months, and he had to take a minute to swallow the lump in his throat as he started up the stairs.

Unfortunately, he found himself in the one place he had been hoping they weren’t going to, Jeremy’s room. Michael watched himself pick up Jeremy’s backpack off the floor. He managed to get a glance of Jeremy before he left. He was asleep, but it didn’t seem very peaceful. He rolled over every couple seconds and scrunched up his face with a whimper. Michael would have given anything to go over and comfort him.

Instead, he walked back out and down the steps. He went into the kitchen and opened the fridge, and that was when Michael realized why he was there.

He emptied nine additional bottles of Mountain Dew Red into the backpack before starting outside.

_ Are we taking these home to make sure Jeremy can’t get to them? _ Michael asked with the shred of hope he had left.

The Squip gave him a deadpan look and flicked it’s wrist, probably for dramatic effect more than anything else, and Michael smashed the first bottle on the ground. The glass shattered on impact, and the liquid redemption inside started running down the driveway. Michael smashed another. By the fourth he looked back towards the porch so he at least wouldn’t have to watch.

By the ninth Jeremy had appeared in the doorway.

Michael took in horror on Jeremy’s face as he threw the last one on the ground, and the Squip made no effort to hide the despair on his own face as he dropped the backpack in the shattered remains of what was left of his chances at freedom before he climbed in the car and drove away.

Michael buried his head in his hands on top of the steering wheel as soon as he got home, causing a loud, long sound to emit from it before the Squip finally pulled his head up.  **You’re going to wake the neighbors. You have an hour of sleep left if you want it.**

Michael started slowly for the house, unlocked and opened the door, walking in to find the angry faces of his mothers.

“Do you know what time it is?” Rachel asked.

Michael didn’t have the energy to try and lie tonight. “No.”

“What makes you think taking your car out in the middle of the night with no warning is an okay thing to do?” Analyn asked, crossing her arms.

Michael sighed and hung his keys on the hook. He’d started towards the steps when Rachel grabbed his arm.

“Excuse me, don’t you walk away from us.”

Michael sighed again and turned back around.

“Do you have any idea how worried sick we were when we woke up to find you gone—”

Michael couldn’t help it, he laughed.

Both Analyn and Rachel gave him a shocked look.

“Wow,” Michael said. “Good one.”

Analyn blinked at him. “I’m sorry?”

“You were worried sick. Wow, that’s— you should try stand up comedy. Might want to work on believability, though. You honestly expect me to believe that you were worried about me? As if you care what I do on a daily basis. You don’t even  _ know _ what I do on a daily basis! You know, if you would just do me a favor, and stop pretending you give a shit about me, you’d probably save us all a lot of time!”

With that, Michael started for the steps and didn’t look back.


	20. Chapter 20

Everyone was sitting at the dining room table and staring at the broken remains of the Mountain Dew Red bottles. Jeremy had called an emergency meeting and woken up his father after Michael drove away from the house.

“How,” Chloe said slowly. “Do you not wake up when someone walks into your room in the middle of the night?!”

“I don’t know!” Jeremy exclaimed. “I’m sorry! I— fuck!” he buried his head in his hands.

“Hey, it’s alright,” Paul said from Jeremy’s left and put a hand on his shoulder. “What’s done is done. Let’s figure out what we can do.”

“How long do you think it will be before we can find another supplier of this stuff?” Jenna asked.

“I’m working on it,” came Matt’s voice from the phone they were calling him with, which was sitting in the center of the table. “But I don’t know. I don’t think counting on the sixteenth would be reasonable.”

_ “Fuck,” _ Chloe hissed, shoving her hands into her hair. “So we have no Mountain Dew Red at all. That’s just great. What are we supposed to do now?”

Jeremy pulled a breath in and tried to think of something to say that wasn’t “I’m sorry,” because that wasn’t going to help right now, and suddenly slammed his hands on the table. “Wait a minute.”

Everyone turned to him.

“What?” Christine asked.

“Hang on!” Jeremy jumped up from the table and sprinted up the steps, into his room, and yanked open his closet. He grabbed Rich’s new backpack that he hadn’t used in a while and slung it over his shoulder as he ran back down the steps. He pulled it back off as he approached the table and unzipped the second pocket, dug around inside, and pulled out an unbroken bottle of Mountain Dew Red, with about a swallow of liquid left inside. “Rich put it in there when we got rid of the Mountain Dew,” Jeremy said. “And then we put it in my closet and forgot about it.”

Everyone stared at it for a couple seconds.

“…That’s it?” Jake asked.

“Hey, this is more than we had two minutes ago,” Jeremy said. “So we’re better off.”

“Jeremy, no offense,” Madeline said, rubbing at her forehead. “But your random bursts of optimism are really not what we need right now.”

“Yeah? Well giving up does  _ shit.” _ Jeremy crossed his arms and stood up taller, pushing his own feelings of guilt aside for the moment. “So let’s find somewhere to put this where Michael can’t get it and start working on another plan.”

“And what kind of plan is that?” Jenna asked. “There’s 419 people left in the school with Squips and we have enough Mountain Dew Red to help one person if we don’t fucking spill it everywhere.”

Jeremy was about to bullshit some kind of other reply to get them all to stop being so defeatist, when suddenly there was a knock on the door.

Brooke grabbed the Mountain Dew Red immediately and put it back in the bag as Paul walked over to the door and everyone else at the table quieted down. Jake picked up the phone, whispered to Matt that they’d call him back later, and hung up.

Paul looked through the peephole and glanced back at Jeremy with a ‘come here’ look.

Jeremy got up from the table and walked over to the front door and looked through the peephole. He pulled back in surprise and glanced over at Paul, who shrugged. “Up to you,” he said quietly.

Jeremy took a deep breath and pulled the door open. “Hi, Analyn,” he said. “Hi Rachel.”

Analyn smiled in a way that did not look at all happy. “Hi, Jeremy.”

“We were wondering if we could talk?” Rachel asked.

Jeremy nodded. “Okay. But be warned, I have a lot of people over right now.”

Both of the women exchanged surprised looks. “It’s the middle of the night,” Rachel said.

Jeremy bit his lip. “Yeah. I’ll explain. I think. If you’re here for the reason I think you’re here.”

“Well, it is the middle of the night,” Analyn repeated with another sad smile.

Jeremy and Paul both took a step back from the door as Analyn and Rachel both walked in.

“Hey, guys.” Jeremy turned to face the table again. “This is—”

“Analyn and Rachel,” Jenna said, biting her lip. “Yeah, everyone knows Michael’s moms.”

“I’m sorry?” Rachel asked. “How do you all know our son?”

Everyone exchanged a series of uncomfortable looks.

“I’m… going to go call Matt back!” Jake said suddenly, jumping up. “He’s probably very confused!”

“I think that’s a great idea!” Chloe said, leaping up too. “And I think you’ll need some help with that!”

“An excellent plan,” Madeline said, also standing. “And don’t you think it would be best to do it in Jeremy’s room?”

“Anyone who wants to go can go,” Jeremy deadpanned, pointing to the steps and cutting off the awkward conversation.

Jake, Chloe, Madeline, and finally Christine all stood up and walked up the steps.

Christine stopped in front of Jeremy before she started up them. “I can— um, stay if you want.”

“It’s gonna be awkward and upsetting,” Jeremy whispered, taking Christine’s hand and squeezing it to let her know he was really okay with it. “You can go ahead.”

“Thank you,” Christine whispered, giving Jeremy a quick hug and all but sprinting up the stairs.

Jeremy walked over and sat down next to Jenna, who immediately offered her hand, which he took. Brooke hopped up and walked over, and sat down on the other side of Jeremy, taking the backpack with her.

Analyn, Rachel, and Paul all took three of the seats on the opposite side of the table. “I’m sorry, but I really don’t understand,” Analyn said. “What is going on? Why are all of these people here, and how do they all know Michael?”

“How do they all know you, for that matter?” Rachel asked.

Jeremy took a breath.

“I can tell them if you want, Jeremy,” Paul offered from the other side of the table.

Jeremy shook his head. “No, no, I can do it. But, uh— you might have to take over.”

“Noted.”

Jeremy took another deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “First of all,” he said quietly. “I am so, so sorry. I wish I was making all of this up.”

Brooke gave him a hug from the side and Jeremy glanced over in surprise. “You sounded like you were blaming yourself again,” she muttered.

Jeremy rested his head on her shoulder for a moment before taking one last deep breath and turning to face Analyn and Rachel, who now looked very concerned.

“So. Um. I’m going to start by saying there’s this thing called a Squip.”

It took almost an hour to explain everything, and Jeremy couldn’t make it all the way through. By the time he got to what had happened between him and Michael, Paul had to take over. Jeremy spent about ten minutes around then staring at the ground and trying to block everything out. Brooke hugged him even harder and Jenna squeezed his hand.

“You know it’s okay to not be able to talk about it, right?” Jenna asked him quietly.

“I talk about it with Rich,” Jeremy replied.

“That’s a very different situation.”

Jeremy hesitated a moment before nodding in agreement. “Yeah, okay.”

By the time everything was explained Jeremy was staring at the table and trying not to look at Analyn and Rachel.

There was almost a full minute of dead silence before Rachel said, slowly, “We have… a kidnapped child in our basement.”

That caused Jeremy to look up. Analyn looked like she was on the verge of tears, and Rachel looked more like she was in shock.

“Uh, hey,” Paul said hesitantly. “Matt and I won’t press charges as long as you give him back?”

Rachel let out a long breath and rested her hands on either side of her nose as she leaned on them. “Thank you, Paul.”

Analyn stood up and walked around the table, and Jeremy stood up as well as she did so. When she made it to the other side she was facing him. “Can I give you a hug?” she asked quietly.

Jeremy swallowed back tears and nodded, and then Analyn wrapped him in her arms.

“I love you so much,” she whispered. “And I am so sorry.”

“What? You didn’t do anything wrong,” Jeremy said in confusion.

Analyn shook her head and pushed Jeremy back to arms length, wiping the tears that had made it down his cheeks after all. “It is never okay to leave someone in that kind of situation,” she said. “We failed to notice and we failed to do anything, and that is something we will spend years trying to make up to you.”

Jeremy sniffed, and buried his face in Analyn’s chest again. For a while the two of them stood there without moving.

Eventually Rachel said they should probably go back home, since it was getting close to the time everyone back there would all be waking up. They also said they wanted to help in any way they could, and would update them on how Rich was doing whenever possible. Jeremy thanked them, and they went home, after which they all went upstairs to find everyone in his room trying to look like they were busy. They must have finished talking with Matt.

“Does anyone actually want to go home tonight?” he asked.

Everyone shook their heads.

“Alright.” Paul clapped his hands together. “I’ll call the school tomorrow and tell them you’re all staying here if you let your parents know. That way we can spend tomorrow figuring out… how the hell we’re going to make this work.”

Jeremy waited until everyone else headed down to the living room before he crawled into his bed and prepared himself for another nightmare. This wasn’t going to be a fun night.

…

Jeremy ended up waking up three more times, so by the time he made it into the kitchen for breakfast he felt like a zombie.

He didn’t talk to everyone else very much, and just ate what he wanted before all but dragging himself back up to his room and under his covers.

Jenna appeared in the doorway a second later. “Couldn’t sleep?” she guessed.

Jeremy groaned and pulled his pillow over his face.

Jenna chuckled and walked forward. “I can stay in here,” she said. “If that will help.”

Jeremy nodded wordlessly.

Jenna walked over and sat down on his desk chair, but just before Jeremy was about to roll over and try to fall asleep, Christine ducked into the room. “Hey, Jeremy? You left your phone downstairs.”

Jeremy sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Oh, thanks Christine.”

Christine passed it to him before standing on the other side of Jenna. “Someone called you, by the way.”

“Was there a name?”

“No. They left a voicemail though.”

“Maybe it’s Rich,” Jeremy said, sitting up quickly and going to his voicemails, clicking play on the one from the number he didn’t recognize and holding it up to his ear.

_ “Um, hi, Jeremy? I don’t know if you were serious about calling you, but it’s Stephanie.” _

Jeremy pulled down the phone in surprise and sat up.

“Was it Rich?” Jenna asked, sitting up straighter.

“No, it was Stephanie.”

“Who’s Stephanie?” Christine asked.

“One of the people who forced Michael to take the Squip. I gave her my phone number.”

Both Jenna and Christine stared at him. “You did what?” Jenna asked. “Why the fuck would you do that?”

“Long story. Hang on.”

Jeremy played the voicemail again and put it on speaker.

_ “Um, hi, Jeremy? I don’t know if you were serious about calling you, but it’s Stephanie. I thought you should know I broke up with Lucas. And I also wanted to tell you I’m available for any questions you have about Squips—” _

Jeremy hit call back before letting her finish. The phone rang two times before Stephanie picked up.

“Jeremy?” she sounded a little surprised.

“Stephanie, hey!” Jeremy called. “You broke up with Lucas?”

“Um… yeah,” Stephanie said, sounding a little uncomfortable. “It was… hard.”

“Yeah, I bet,” Jeremy said sincerely. “I’m proud of you.”

“Oh, uh. Thanks. Are you calling about that, or something else?”

“You said I could talk to you about Squips. Could we actually meet at the mall?”

“Of course. Is Rich coming?”

Jeremy winced. “Uh, no. I’ll explain when I get there. How’s 11:00?”

…

“So Michael really never wanted a Squip in the first place,” Jenna said from the front seat with a shake of her head. “Wow. Who knew he was just as much a captive as the rest of us. Oh, wait. Jeremy did. And he never fucking told anyone.”

“I’m sorry!” Jeremy exclaimed for about the billionth time. “I didn’t want to think about it! It just made everything a million times more confusing! And I kinda thought you put the pieces together since you said you didn’t think Michael was happy.”

“I  _ thought _ he took the Squip and regretted it later on. Not that a couple of assholes forced an abusive supercomputer on a 12 year old kid. One of whom you  _ still happen to be in contact with.” _

“Yeah, Jeremy, seriously, that’s insane,” Christine said, pulling into the mall parking lot.

“I’m not saying we’re gonna be buddy buddy chums our whole lives,” Jeremy said. “I wanted to make sure she had help if she wanted to get away from Lucas and keep her on hand in case she could tell us anything. It’s not like I’m going to invite her to my next birthday party.”

“Still!” Jenna called, throwing her hands in the air.

“Look, I just… I just really don’t want to go alone, okay? After this, you never have to see her again, I promise.”

Jenna paused for a minute, and sighed. “Alright.”

“I mean, we’re already here, aren’t we?” Christine said, pulling into a parking spot. They all climbed out of the car and started towards the entrance, which led into the food court.

Jeremy pulled the door open and Christine and Jenna both followed him in. He spotted Stephanie pretty quickly, at a table right near the entrance, and waved as he walked forward.

Stephanie caught his gaze and waved back.

“So this is Jenna and Christine,” Jeremy said as they all sat down. “They’re some other people whose Squips Rich and I managed to get rid of.”

“Yeah, where is Rich?” Stephanie asked. “You said you would explain?”

Jeremy shared a glance with Jenna and Christine and sighed. “Rich got captured,” he said. “We’ve been kind of stagnant since. We’re trying to make it look like it affected us more than it did, in order to keep them from taking anyone else, but that’s left us without any kind of plan as to what to do on the 16th. And Michael just destroyed our entire Mountain Dew Red supply, so now we’re pretty much fucked no matter what we try to do.”

Stephanie stared at him, and Jeremy realized she probably had no idea what he was talking about.

“Oh, uh, the 16th is the night of the play, and it’s when they’re going to squip the audience and start the next stage of the plan.”

“Oh, right, you’re dealing with a defective Squip,” Stephanie said.

That threw Jeremy for a loop. It seemed to confuse Christine and Jenna too.

“What are you talking about?” Jenna asked.

“A defective Squip.” Stephanie blinked at them. “You know, one of the Squips that doesn’t actually try to help a user accomplish a goal, like they’re supposed to?”

All three of them exchanged baffled glances.

“The Squips are just supposed to spread themselves to other people,” Christine said slowly. “Aren’t they?”

Stephanie’s eyes widened, and she looked back and forth between the three of them. “You don’t know?”

“Know what?” Jeremy asked, sitting forward.

“Lucas and I didn’t give Michael a normal Squip. It was glowing all weird. The ones Lucas and I had were supposed to help us accomplish a goal, one that  _ we _ gave it.”

“So… Michael did want to spread Squips everywhere, and that’s the goal he gave it?” Jenna asked.

Stephanie hesitated, then shook her head. “I don’t think so. The kid didn’t seem like the type. But I guess you’d probably know that more than me.” She nodded at Jeremy. “But even if he did, it shouldn’t have been able to spread the way it did. There can’t be that many defective Squips. That’s why I was so confused when you said there was an army of Squips at your school. Squips can’t reprogram other Squips, unless—”

“Unless they’re synced,” Jenna realized, slamming her hands on the table. “Could a Squip sync with that many people?”

Stephanie bit her lip. “It’s possible,” she admitted. “But normally when Squips are synced they all shut off with Mountain Dew Red.”

“Michael has a weird version, though. You said that yourself.” Jeremy tapped his fingers on the table as he thought. “Do you think maybe Michael is synced to everyone, but not enough for the Mountain Dew Red to affect it?”

“That could be,” Jenna said. “You can sync to different people partially. And that would mean that’s how Michael’s Squip is forcing all of the other Squips to follow it’s same rules. Because you said that many can’t be defective.” She looked at Stephanie at the end of her sentence.

“It is extremely unlikely for that number of defective Squips to all be in the same place,” Stephanie muttered.

“And that could also explain why everyone looked to Michael as an authority,” Christine said. “If his Squip is the main one that synced to everyone else’s.”

“Guys,” Jeremy said. “Could giving Michael the Mountain Dew Red affect everyone else’s Squips too?”

Everyone turned to face Stephanie.

“It… should,” she said slowly. “If you really think that’s what’s going on, and it sounds like it might be.”

“Well,” Jeremy said. “It doesn’t really take that much Mountain Dew Red to shut off one person’s Squip.”

Jenna’s eyes widened. “Oh, holy fuck.”


	21. Chapter 21

Michael seemed sadder than normal, which was saying something. Rich was worried something had happened— only because it might affect Jeremy. Not because he cared about Michael or anything. But the more confusing part was that Michael’s moms were acting different that morning. They gave Rich knowing smiles that he was still trying to figure out, but those seemed sadder too. The two of them in general seemed to have gotten sadder at the same time as Michael. Rich felt like he was being left out of the loop about something. Maybe it was just an off day?

But there was another problem, and that was the fact that Rich hadn’t been able to talk to anyone else in almost two weeks. He really wanted to stay updated on whatever was happening, not to mention the fact that he just missed his boyfriend and his friends. Who knew being kidnapped would be so lonely?

…In retrospect, he probably should have figured.

Michael was still holding his phone hostage (now Rich understood how Jeremy had felt), and while a couple of times Rich had managed to get ahold of one of his moms phones to call Paul, they still had them with them most of the time.

The latest chance he had of contacting someone had been last night when Michael disappeared for an hour or so and left his phone behind. Come to think of it, that was right before he started seeming even more depressed. Rich wondered what had happened.

But as soon as Michael had left, Rich had stopped pretending to be asleep and went around the room looking for his phone. He couldn’t find it, as the Squip had apparently hidden it really well— maybe it had just thrown it out. That would suck.

Eventually, after realizing he had a limited time frame, he went over to Michael’s nightstand and unplugged his phone from there. He was wracking his brain to try and remember what Jeremy’s new phone number was when the door at the top of the stairs opened.

“Rich?!” Analyn called, sounding scared. “The car is gone, have you seen Michael?”

Shit.

“Uh, no?” Rich called back innocently. “He’s not down here! Is he gone?”

He heard Analyn mutter “Shit,” and then heard her footsteps walking away.

Rich took a breath and turned back to Michael’s phone. He turned it on and paused. The lock screen was a picture of Jeremy.

Rich wasn’t sure when it was taken. It was clearly recently, but Jeremy was mid-laugh, and matching that up with Michael was something that didn’t work with ‘recently.’

Rich bit his lip, and tried a hunch, putting in Jeremy’s birthday for the passcode. The phone unlocked.

_ Holy shit. _

The home screen was also a picture of Jeremy, which was less surprising at this point. In this one they were clearly younger though, and Michael was in the picture too. He had his arm wrapped around Jeremy and ice cream smothered all over his face. Jeremy was leaning away from Michael, who was clearly trying to get the ice cream on his face all over Jeremy. They both looked like kids, as gross and silly as kids were.

Rich was having another epiphany moment, because suddenly a lot more was making sense.

When Michael finally came back downstairs, looking like a weird mix of angry and sad, Rich was still sitting on his bed, not having had a chance to call Jeremy. But he was currently angry for a different reason.

“What are you looking at?” Michael asked, staring at his phone.

Rich turned the phone around and showed Michael his own lock screen. “He is my boyfriend,” he said.

Michael’s eyes widened. “What? I— I wasn’t—”

“No,” Rich snapped. “He is my boyfriend and you do not deserve him.”

“I— I know that,” Michael got out. “I just—”

“I’m going to make one thing clear right now.” Rich stood up and set Michael’s phone down on his nightstand, probably a little too hard. “We will beat your Squips, and it is seeming more and more like you want them gone just as much as everyone else. I can empathize with that. I am so sorry something like this happened to you. It isn’t fair. But after this is all over, if you lay a finger on Jeremy I will  _ end you. _ Understand?”

Michael gave a long, drawn out sigh. “You’re not going to win,” he murmured, sounding incredibly defeated by that statement.

_ “Understand?” _

Michael sighed again. “Yeah, I got it. I’d fucking encourage it, Rich, okay? But you’re not going to win.”

“Well, lucky for us, you’re not in charge of morale.”

Rich walked over and laid down on his bed. He was going the fuck back to sleep.

…

Jackson was weird.

Rich couldn’t exactly wrap his head around the idea of him, especially considering he actually liked his Squip. Genuinely. Or at least, it seemed that way.

Going to school was weird now too, because Jeremy was  _ right there _ and he had to pretend to be squipped. And Jeremy had to pretend to be sad and scared.

God, Rich hoped he was pretending.

But school was especially weird because he had to now spend all his time with Michael, Jackson and Emery. Michael was being his depressing self that Rich just wanted to see react to something, fight back against the Squip in some way, even if it was small. Emery seemed pretty aware of everything that was going on, but while she wasn’t nearly as depressed as Michael was, it didn’t seem like she was going to try and do anything about it.

Jackson… was weird.

Whenever Rich saw him he was beaming. He seemed like he had no idea what was really happening around him, which was astounding given that he was one of the people  _ causing _ what was happening around him.

Rich tried to wrap his head around the idea of someone being happy with a Squip. Was Jackson’s Squip treating him poorly? Was he okay? Was he just much better than Michael at hiding the fact that he was losing it?

Was that even possible, given that he seemed like the least subtle person on the face of the earth?

Whatever the reason actually was, Rich could not figure him out, so most of the time he just tried to avoid him.

The ‘tried’ being because Jackson didn’t make it easy.

“Hey, Rich, have you given some thought yet to whether or not you want to take a Squip?” Jackson asked as Rich sat down at lunch that day.

“Jackson, hi. Nope, still don’t want one. But thank you for your persistent and constant checking up on me, I really appreciate it.”

“No problem, bud!” Jackson said, patting Rich on the shoulder.

Rich gave Emery a look, who raised her hands as if to say, “I know.”

Jackson often came back to Michael’s house along with the two of them, and he spent much of that time also making a case to Rich about why Squips are so great and he should definitely take one. Rich felt it safe to say his patience was wearing thin.

Jackson and Michael spent most of the drive home that day planning something. Rich was trying to listen as closely as he could, but the two were talking as quietly as possible, likely because their Squips didn’t want him to hear.

By the time they got back to Michael’s house, Rich just wanted to collapse on his bed and read a book until dinnertime.

Unfortunately, Jackson was back to getting on his case.

“I mean, you haven’t even tried them! I just think—”

“No thank you, Jackson.”

Jackson sighed and walked over to sit in Michael’s desk chair, as Michael laid down on his own bed and turned his back to both of them.

Rich did the same and pulled his book open.

“Geez, you two are a couple of gloomy Guses today.”

Michael said nothing, so after a moment, when Jackson was clearly awaiting a response, Rich said, “Not now, Jackson.”

“I’m just saying. I mean, we’re so close to Michael’s plan succeeding, and you guys are acting like it’s somebody’s funeral.”

“Not now, Jackson.”

“Shouldn’t you be excited? I am.”

_ “Not now,  _ Jackson.”

“I mean, I guess you wouldn’t be, because you don’t even want a Squip. Which I still don’t understand. If you could just realize how great they are—”

“For fucks sake!” Rich whirled around.  _ “Not now, Jackson!” _

Jackson blinked at him, like he was just realizing Rich was a little ticked off. “Geez, I’m sorry. I’m just trying to understand what the heck your deal is, Rich.”

“And I’m to understand what the heck your deal is, Jackson! I’m trying to understand how anyone could actually  _ want _ something in their head that tells them what to do all the time!”

Jackson blinked at Rich. “You—”

“And not only that, but you force them on other people! Jesus Christ Jackson, just— what the  _ fuck _ is wrong with you?!”

Jackson stared at Rich for another second. “You—” he said again. “You actually— you actually don’t like Squips?”

Rich gaped at him. “I’ve been literally  _ fighting to get rid of them _ for  _ months.” _

“But— but you just don’t understand,” Jackson protested, as something in his face shifted. “You just don’t get it because you’ve never had one.”

“I’ve seen what they’ve done to other people. I’ve seen what they’ve done to Jeremy, and Brooke, and Christine. And Michael!” Rich pointed at Michael, who rolled over in his bed, looking a little surprised to be included in the conversation. “You actually think Michael is on board with everything you guys are doing? Are you  _ nuts?” _

Jackson blinked again. “But— I— but—”

Rich threw up his hands and rolled over again to read his book. After a while, he heard footsteps walk up the stairs and open and shut the door.

“You didn’t have to snap at him,” Michael said quietly.

“Oh, whatever,” Rich grumbled. “He’s impossible.”

“He’s really not aware enough of what’s going on to know that people are hurting.”

Rich sat up on his bed and turned to face Michael, who was still laying down as he faced Rich. “Yeah? Well people are still hurting. And he’s causing it. Whether he’s aware of it or not, he’s causing people to hurt. It’s not fair that he gets to be so oblivious about it. He needs to fucking wake up.”

“You know, Jackson once told me that he thinks he’s worthless,” Michael said softly, and he sounded like he was a different kind of sad right now than what he usually was. “Said he thinks he can make himself worth something by listening to his Squip. But he said all of that like it was just a fact that couldn’t be changed. He sounded as happy as he usually does while he said it. It was awful.”

Rich swallowed. “What’s your point?”

“I don’t think the fact that Jackson genuinely agrees with the Squips means they treat him any better.”

Rich bit his lip. “That doesn’t make him any less responsible,” he said. “He’s choosing to do all of this. Genuinely. Unlike Chloe or Jake or Madeline or you. That… that makes it a little bit his fault.”

“But that makes it not anyone else’s fault?” Michael asked incredulously.

Rich hesitated, and sighed. “I don’t know,” he muttered. “I’m not sure fault matters so much anymore.”

Michael finally sat up, staring at Rich in bafflement. “Then why are you so mad at Jackson? You’re not making any sense.”

“Yeah, well,” Rich said. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m not being fair either. I’m not exactly perfect. But I think the fact that he’s so willing to do all of this says something about him.”

Rich laid down again and picked up his book. This time Michael didn’t interrupt him.

…

“Hey, Rich?” Michael asked.

They were in the dark again, in the middle of the night. Rich had woken up to Michael turning on a lamp and starting to work at a desk. He’d worked for about an hour and laid down again, and Rich hadn’t fallen back asleep yet.

He wasn’t sure why Michael was talking to him now. He didn’t particularly want to talk. He really wanted to go back to sleep more than anything else. But Michael sounded sad again. And Rich wanted him to stop it.

“What?”

“Do you about the play tomorrow night?” Michael sounded exhausted. That was normal.

“Yeah, I know.”

“Do you know why it’s important?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re coming with me, you know.”

“I know.”

Michael said nothing, for a long enough time that Rich figured he was asleep. But then he spoke again. “I don’t understand you.”

“What do you mean?”

“How have you not given up? How have you not looked at everything that’s happening and decided it’s hopeless? How are you still so sure you’ll win?”

Rich sighed. “Because I have to be. I can’t afford to have doubts. Not so close to tomorrow night.”

“I’m sure Jeremy’s freaking out.”

Rich chuckled a little. “Yeah. He probably is.”

“So why does he get to have doubts and you don’t?”

Rich sighed again. “He has people there to build him back up. I don’t have anyone here to help me right now.”

Michael gave a sigh of his own. “I know what that’s like,” he muttered. “No one’s going to help me either.”

Rich looked curiously in Michael’s general direction. Was he unaware of the fact that Jeremy was currently running a rebellion to try and help him? Or was that a different kind of belief, less one that he’d decided himself and more one that had been forced on him?

Well, if that was the case, Rich giving a list of facts as to why he was wrong probably wasn’t going to help much. But he still wanted Michael to stop being sad. So he just hummed in disagreement, and said, “Well, then I guess you’ll have to help yourself.”

He pulled the covers up closer to his face and pretended he didn’t hear Michael’s baffled “What?” in response.

…

Rich woke up to Michael looking down at him from next to the bed, with a cold indifference on his face that pretty much instantly confirmed that Rich was talking to the Squip right now.

He swallowed the insult on the tip of his tongue while still trying to project at least a little bit of confidence. “What?”

“You’ve had enough chances to talk to Michael. You’re going to stop now,” the Squip said casually.

Rich raised an eyebrow. “You do realize you’re still wearing Michael’s face all the time, right? So when I talk to you, he’s also there?”

The Squip gave him a deadpan look. “I can easily alter Michael’s memory in whatever ways I deem necessary, Rich. He won’t remember this conversation later.”

Rich shifted a little in discomfort. “Um, okay. Why do you not do that more often? Seems like it would be pretty useful.”

“I choose how to operate based on probable futures. Statistically speaking Michael is more useful to me if he remembers more of what is happening. It makes him less hopeful.”

Rich stared up at the Squip in disgust. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“You have potential to give Michael far too much hope,” the Squip said, ignoring what Rich had said entirely. “So I will make this simple: back off or I will Squip you.”

“Wouldn’t that just make Michael more curious as to what happened if he never remembers this threat in the first place?” Rich mumbled.

The Squip bent down and picked Rich up by his shirt before he could protest. He dangled him in the air and moved him away from his bed, so there was no soft cushion to fall back on.

“Hey, let me go!” Rich snapped.

“You don’t talk to Michael anymore. Understand?”

Rich looked down at Michael from about half a foot above his head and tried to resist the urge to kick him in the face, because there was no way that would end well. For a moment, he understood exactly why Jeremy found him scary.

“Alright,” he croaked.

The Squip went back to smiling brightly and dropped Rich without moving any closer to the bed.

Rich didn’t fall very far, but he hit the ground hard enough to knock the wind out of him. It took him a couple seconds to catch his breath, and by the time he looked up Michael was sitting on his bed again, staring at him with a slight curiosity.

“Rich? Why are you on the ground?”


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The warnings that apply to this chapter are Physical Abuse and Emotional/Psychological Abuse.

The Play was tomorrow night.

Everyone was understandably freaking the fuck out.

Jeremy was one of those people too, but he was unfortunately also in charge of keeping morale up.

Jenna and Christine seemed to get that he was starting to crack under the pressure, so they were in charge of keeping  _ his _ morale up.

“We could fail. What if we fail? Do you think Rich would hate me?”

“No,” Christine piped up.

“What if he does though? Or what if you guys hate me?”

“We won’t,” Jenna said.

“What if we fail? What if we’re all squipped and we can’t do anything?”

“That’s why I’m staying behind with your dad,” Jenna said. “So we won’t be squipped and we’ll be able to figure out something else to do.”

“What if something goes wrong, though? What if—”

“Something will go wrong,” Jenna said. Christine nodded. “We’ll never be able to plan this perfectly.”

“I’d like to think we’re pretty good at improvising, though,” Christine said with a smile. “We’ve done everything we can to prepare. All we can do now is our best.”

“I— know.” Jeremy let out a sigh and collapsed into his desk chair from where he had been pacing back and forth in front of it. “I’m sorry, I just—”

“It’s okay,” Christine said. “I get it, you’re under a lot of pressure. You’re overwhelmed.”

“Yeah,” Jeremy muttered. “I really am. Fuck.” He buried his head in his hands. “This has to be the most terrified I’ve been in my entire life.”

“Understandable,” Jenna said. “I’m terrified too. We all are. But we have a great plan and a great leader.”

Jeremy smiled a little. “Yeah, my dad’s pretty great, huh?”

Jenna stared at him. “I mean, yes,” she said. “I love your dad. But I wasn’t talking about him.”

“Oh. You mean Rich? He’s not here right now.”

“Jeremy, she’s talking about you,” Christine said.

“What?! Who made me the leader?”

Christine and Jenna exchanged a baffled look. “Jeremy,” Jenna said. “You did.”

“What?”

“You convinced Rich to keep looking into Squips when he thought they weren’t real,” Jenna said. “And you helped me put myself first when I needed to and give myself a break.”

“You helped me realize Squips are bad in the first place,” Christine said. “Along with insisting that everyone let the Enforcers make their own decision. You think everyone went along with that because they all agreed with you?”

“You checked on every single one of us after our Squips shut off and made sure we were doing okay,” Jenna said. “Why do you think you’re in charge of raising everyone’s spirits right now? They’re all looking to you because they trust you. And you’re leading them. And doing a fucking amazing job at it.”

“But— I’m freaking out right now,” Jeremy said. “And I still need help, and I’m scared.”

“Leaders need support too. You think the people in charge do it all by themselves?”

“I mean, no, but…” Jeremy trailed off as he saw their faces. “You really think I’m the leader?”

“You  _ are _ the leader,” Jenna said. “I don’t  _ think _ anything.”

Jeremy leaned forward in the chair and stared at his hands in thought. “Huh. I guess heading the video game club was good practice after all.”

Christine and Jenna both laughed.

…

Everyone gathered in Jeremy’s living room a couple hours before the Play. Most of the people that were going to be helping were going to meet them at the school, but everyone that had built bonds over the course of fighting the Squips decided they needed a chance to say goodbye in case something did go horribly wrong in an unfixable way. The only person who wasn’t there was Matt, who was on his way down, and would meet them at the school.

Jake was once again the one dealing with the Mountain Dew Red. Jeremy had admitted that he wasn’t sure he could handle going after Michael himself, and there was no way to know that it was possible that someone could be with him. So he was going to be keeping the other squipped people away from Jake, along with Christine, Chloe, Madeline, Brooke, Analyn, Rachel, and the rest of the people who were meeting them at the school.

“So,” Jeremy said. “This isn’t going to be easy. We all know that. But we’re going to throw everything we’ve got at them.”

Everyone exchanged hopeful glances and smiles. Brooke gave a cheer, and Jeremy smiled at her.

“We can do this,” Jeremy said. “We’re going to have to work for it, but we have a plan, we have a strategy, and we have the advantage of the fact that we don’t have to get to everyone. We just have to get Jake through the soldiers and to Michael, and we win.”

“Let’s do this!” Madeline called.

“I’m ready to take these fuckers down,” Chloe said, crossing her arms with a firm glare.

Similar sentiments came from around the room, and Jenna from her spot next to Jeremy gave him a nudge and raised an eyebrow. She mouthed, “Great leading.”

Jeremy gave her a glare that was only half serious.

“Okay, the Play starts in two hours. Does everyone know what they’re doing?” Jeremy asked. He got nods from everyone, so he grinned and stood up taller. “Then let’s head out!”

Everyone, bar Jenna and Paul, got in various cars and headed for the school. Jeremy ended up in the car being driven by Chloe along with Madeline, Jake, Brooke, and Christine.

“Hey, guys?” he said softly, looking around the car at Brooke and Christine, two of the five people he considered his biggest support. “No matter what happens, thank you.”

Brooke reached over from her spot next to him and gave him a hug. “Thank  _ you,” _ she said. Christine smiled in agreement, but before she could say anything, Chloe turned the car into the school.

“Okay,” she said. “Here we are.”

Everyone climbed out of the car, but hesitated before starting towards the meeting they had planned with everyone else. Brooke knew a good spot to meet behind the school so that they could hopefully still keep the element of surprise. Eventually, Jeremy started all of them forward, and they were the first six to get there.

Eventually other cars started to arrive and people started heading back towards them, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible.

The first two people that came up to him were Analyn and Rachel.

“You know that no matter what happens, we are incredibly proud of you, right?” Analyn asked.

Jeremy smiled at them both. “Thank you,” he said, giving them both a quick hug.

Almost everyone was there when Jeremy was approached by someone else, who he hadn’t yet met in person.

“Hey, Matt,” Jeremy said, giving him a hug as well. “I’m glad you could make it.”

“I’m here to rescue my little brother. I wouldn’t miss this for anything.”

Jeremy smiled a little. “That’s fair,” he said.

“And hey, just know if this does go horribly wrong, I have my roommate Jasmine working on getting another supply.”

Jeremy gave a sigh of relief. “Thanks, Matt,” he said. “You’re awesome.”

Matt shrugged nonchalantly. “Yeah, I know.”

Jeremy laughed, and shoved Matt playfully. Before he could say anything else, however, one more person walked up to him, that being Christine.

“Can we talk?” she asked.

“Of course.” Jeremy followed her a little ways away from everyone else.

“So this is pretty intense,” Christine said. “Are you okay?”

“Not really,” Jeremy said. “Are you?”

“Not really.”

Jeremy nodded. “Nice to know we can still be honest with each other,” he said with a little smile.

They both stood there in silence for a moment.

“You know,” Christine said. “Shakespeare wrote comedies and tragedies.”

“Yeah, I know,” Jeremy said. “Is this about you interpreting the world through Shakespeare?”

“This is about…” Christine said slowly. She was quiet for another minute. “I don’t want this story to end up a tragedy. I wish it could have been a comedy from the start.”

Jeremy gave a sad chuckle. “You and me both.”

Neither of them said anything again. After another minute they both walked back over to the rest of the group.

Everyone finally got there an hour before the Play started.

There were quite a few faces there, and Jeremy took a deep breath before stepping forward to address them all.

“Hi, everyone,” he said. “I’m Jeremy.”

There were smiles, and a couple quieter cheers, since everyone seemed to get the gravity of their presence remaining unknown.

“Thank you so much to everyone for agreeing to help. We’re really going to need all the support we can get,” Jeremy continued. “Because this isn’t going to be easy, and I don’t want anyone going into this thinking it will be. But we also shouldn’t go into this feeling defeated, because I really do think we can do this. We know what we have to do. We know we all have to get Jake—” Jeremy pointed at him— “through the soldiers and to Michael to make this happen. And I think we have the resources to pull it off, as long as we all work together and keep our goal in mind.” He gave a grin as big as he could manage. “Are we ready to take all the Squips down?”

A bit louder of a cheer went up, and Jeremy threw a fist in the air. “Then let’s do this!” he called, and with that, everyone started around the school towards the back entrance to the auditorium.

Jeremy led the group, and stopped everyone when they arrived at the door that should lead straight to the backstage hallway.

Jeremy inched it opened and peeked inside to see no one there. Slowly, he opened the door all the way and waved everyone in. In about a minute and a half there were 79 people standing in the hall. Jeremy started for the door that led to backstage. There were quite a few more people when he peeked back there.

“Okay,” he whispered. “This is it. Jake, you ready?”

Jake held up the Mountain Dew Red bottle and tightened his grip on it in confirmation.

“Okay,” Jeremy said, putting his hand on the handle of the door. “Three, two, one…”

He yanked the door open and everyone flooded backstage.

There were a few cries of surprise, but not nearly as many as had been expected, which couldn’t be good.

But there was no time to dwell on that, as everyone started towards all the people around them, and started to look for Michael. He was supposed to be the backstage manager, according to Madeline. He had to be here.

Jeremy’s main job was to keep soldiers away from Jake, but there were so many of them that he quickly lost track of many of the people that were supposed to be on their side. After about ten seconds his strategy became, ‘If they’re getting too close to Jake, shove them away.’

Jeremy tried not to look for Rich, but that was hard to do. No one would be at the Mell house and Michael wasn’t going to let him out of his sight, he had to be here. Jeremy lost count of the times he reminded himself that he could find him afterwards.

He heard Brooke cry out and get dragged away from her spot next to him, and Jeremy tried hard not to sprint after her.

Then someone went after Christine on Jeremy’s other side, and by the time Jeremy was starting to wonder if this was a strategy, someone grabbed onto his arm. Jeremy threw a blind swing. He hit them in what felt like the nose, but they didn’t let go. Eventually, Jeremy turned and wrestled his arm away, kicking the person back away from him.

But that took long enough that when Jeremy turned back towards Jake, the rest of his entourage was gone and he was fighting too many soldiers at once.

“Jake!” Jeremy cried, about to run into the fray.

But Jake looked over at him, shook his head, and threw the Mountain Dew Red bottle towards him.

Jeremy cried out and leapt for it.

He caught it and managed to tuck it on top of his chest as he landed on the ground, hard. It took him a couple seconds to get back up after having the wind knocked out of him, but nothing felt broken.

Unfortunately, this left Jeremy with a very different job. One he wasn’t supposed to have.

Jeremy tried to pull in a stabling breath, but everyone was now starting towards him, and before he could try and think of a better option, he was grabbing for the handle of a nearby room and yanking himself inside, as well as pulling the door shut behind him.

Well, that was a stupid decision. How was he supposed to get back out there? How was he supposed to find—

“Hello, Jeremy.”

Fuck. This was exactly why he wasn’t supposed to have this job.

…

Rich had joined the fray as soon as people started fighting backstage, and was making his way towards the storage space where he knew Michael had gone. He had said it was to get something, but he wasn’t sure that was the case anymore.

Eventually, Rich found a group of soldiers who were abandoning someone they’d just thrown on the ground. It took Rich a second to identify him, but when he did he ran forward.

“Jake!” he cried.

Jake spit out a mouthful of blood and looked up at Rich. “Rich, you need to find Jeremy!” he screamed.

Rich’s blood ran cold. “Why?!” he yelled, still trying to make his voice louder than everything around them.

“He has the Mountain Dew Red! He wasn’t supposed to have to deal with Michael!”

They were going after Michael specifically? Why the fuck would they do that? Wouldn’t the better option be to try and unsquip as many synced people as possible with as many bottles spread between people as they could?

He really couldn’t focus on that right now, though. If Jeremy was going after Michael, Rich had to find one of them first. And since Jeremy was a less likely option right now, Michael seemed like his best bet.

“Are you okay?” he asked Jake.

Jake nodded, waving him off. Rich nodded and turned back towards the storage space across the backstage area. That wasn’t going to be easy to get to.

Well, now or never, all or nothing, any other clichés that essentially said ‘get off your butt and do this now.’

Here goes nothing?

Let’s go with that.

…

“Well, look at what you’ve become without me,” Michael felt himself say, as he watched himself walk towards Jeremy who was clutching something to his chest as he backed away. “You’re just as pathetic as you used to be.”

Jeremy was breathing heavily, though whether that was from fear or just exertion, Michael couldn’t say. Maybe it was both.

Jeremy clutched whatever he was holding to his chest, and squeezed his eyes shut. “Michael,” he got out. “I’m here to help you.”

That sentence didn’t sit right in the air when Jeremy said it, because no one was going to help him, right? That was just a fact. Michael wasn’t worth helping.

“How many times do I have to make it clear that I don’t want it?” the Squip said. It casually leaned against a cardboard pillar for a half second, which knocked it over. Jeremy yelped and jumped backwards, slamming himself into the door, and it took Michael another half second to realize that was the point of what had just happened.

“I’ve been waiting for you to show up,” Michael said, and when Jeremy gave him a confused look, he sighed. “You do know that Squips run on probable futures, right? I knew this would happen. Wow, you’re just as stupid as I remember.”

Jeremy flinched. “Stop it,” he said.

“Do you actually think you can beat me?” Michael stepped towards Jeremy. “There’s nothing you can do, Jeremy.”

“Stop it,” Jeremy whispered, pressing himself harder against the door.

“Look at what a worthless piece of shit you are.”

Jeremy whimpered and seemed to squeeze whatever he was holding even tighter.

“What are you without me?”

Jeremy whimpered again as he opened his eyes to stare up at Michael, tears welling in them.

“Jeremy, answer the question.”

Jeremy shook his head, ducking it down into his chest.

_ “Answer it!” _ Michael screamed, slamming the wall next to Jeremy, who cried out and nearly dropped what he was holding.

_ What’s so important about that thing? _ Michael asked.

**Shut up, Michael.**

_ But— _

**Michael.**

Michael shut up.

The Squip reached Michael’s arm forward and gently nudged Jeremy’s shoulder, and Jeremy screamed and jumped backwards so hard he hit the door and fell to the ground. Whatever it was he was holding slipped out of his grasp, and Michael reached down to pick it up.

But before he could get there, Jeremy grabbed for it and squeezed it to his chest again, curling around it like it was the last good thing in the world. He took just enough time to grab it to let Michael see that it was an almost empty bottle of Mountain Dew Red.

Almost. Almost empty.

What exactly was Jeremy doing? Why would he waste the last of the Mountain Dew Red on him? Michael didn’t even know he still had any.

“Jeremy,” the Squip cooed gently. “Give me the soda.”

Jeremy shook his head and wrapped himself tighter around it.

“Jeremy.” Michael’s voice suddenly sounded much less gentle. “Give me the soda.”

Michael’s foot reared back before it kicked Jeremy in the side. Jeremy cried out again and curled into a smaller ball.

The Squip must have stopped controlling his face in lieu of it’s other priorities right now, because Michael could feel his eyes welling up and spilling over with tears. There wasn’t much he thought he could do about it. There wasn’t much he could do about anything anymore.

But then… what was it Rich had said? He’d have to help himself? That was impossible. Michael couldn’t do anything anymore. He didn’t have any control over anything.

Michael turned his eyes downwards and saw the bottle of soda through Jeremy’s arms. Well, he had control over his eyes right now. Why exactly did he not have control over anything else? Just because the Squip said so? Michael didn’t even  _ like _ the Squip.

And what exactly was keeping Michael from reaching down there and grabbing that soda right now, guzzling it down and ending all of this? Just the stupid fucking Squip?

The Squip who must not have been paying attention to Michael’s thoughts at the moment, because all it was doing was continuing to kick Jeremy.

And then, just like that, it wasn’t.

The Squip seemed to pause for a moment in confusion, like it wasn’t quite sure what was happening. Jeremy did the same thing, opening his eyes and looking up at Michael in fearful confusion.

Michael was so done with having Jeremy look at him like that. He reached out his arm and grabbed onto another one of the nearby cardboard pillars, doing his best to hold himself in place. “That’s  _ enough,” _ he growled.

Jeremy’s eyes widened. “Michael?”

**What are you doing, you worthless little pest?** the Squip snapped, taking another step back towards Jeremy.

“I said that’s  _ enough!” _ Michael screamed, dragging himself behind the pillar and out of sight of Jeremy. “Leave him alone!”

**You little—** the Squip growled back at him.  **I have spent years building this plan. It has almost succeeded. I will not have it ruined at the last second by** **_you._ **

“Maybe it’s time you stopped underestimating people,” Michael said, taking another step backwards. “You underestimated Jeremy, and look at what he did. You underestimated Rich, and he was the only person who managed to not take a Squip despite you wanting to give him one.”

Michael found an old pink cushioned couch and sat down on it casually.

“And you underestimated me,” Michael said. “And I am so fucking done with people assuming shit about me.”

**Stand** **_up_ ** **you useless excuse of a host!**

Jeremy peeked out from behind the pillar. “Michael?”

“Jeremy, go on!” Michael waved him away. “Give it to someone else. There’s someone out there named Rose Boone, she’s synced to almost a hundred people right now, and that’s enough to slow down the plan for you to have time to get more Mountain Dew Red.”

Jeremy shook his head and took another step forward. “Michael—”

“Go! I can’t hold the Squip forever!” It would take too much energy for Michael to try and wipe his tears away, so he left them. “I’m sorry, okay? I’m so sorry. I never wanted any of this to happen, I—” Michael took a gasping breath as the Squip tried and almost succeeded to move his arm. “But you can’t waste that on me. I just— just go, Jeremy,” Michael choked out. “I just want you to be happy!”

Jeremy kept walking forward until he stopped and knelt down in front of Michael. He was still shaking, but he looked firm and determined too. “If you want me to be happy then drink this,” he said, holding out the bottle of precious soda.

“Why?” Michael asked.

“Because I want to  _ help you, _ Michael,” Jeremy said, wiping away his own tears. “Because I want  _ you _ to be happy.”

Michael gasped and shoved his arm over his other one to hold it down, as it was starting to move of its own accord again. “Why?” he asked again. “I don’t deserve to be happy.”

Jeremy leaned forward again, resting the bottle on Michael’s knee. “Yes you do,” he said. “You do.”

“Why?”

“Because I love you, you moron,” Jeremy sobbed, shoving the bottle towards Michael’s hand.

Wait. Pause. Hold up.

What?

Michael was trying to get the hundreds of rushing thoughts in his head to calm down, but they could wait, they could wait until after Michael drank the liquid hope Jeremy was offering him, offering  _ him _ because he wanted him to be happy, because he—

Michael stared at Jeremy for another second before he grabbed the bottle of soda and downed the barely swallow-worthy amount inside, before dropping the bottle and hearing it shatter on the ground.

He gasped as everything in his head suddenly shut up all at once.

“Michael?” Jeremy asked, leaning forward and reaching out for him.

Michael screeched, and Jeremy did the same, and leapt backward, scrambling across the room until he was as far away from Michael as possible.

Michael curled in on himself and screamed, cried out in a bizarre mix of rage and joy and sorrow, and oh, he knew this pain well.

This pain meant everything was about to change, drastically. In a way they couldn’t come back from. But this time, maybe the change would be  _ good. _ Just this once, Michael allowed himself to hope.


	23. Chapter 23

“Jeremy?”

Jeremy shook his head and buried it further into his knees.

“Jeremy, it’s me. I’m here.”

“No no no no no no no no don’t hurt me don’t hurt me please don’t hurt me!”

“No, Jeremy. Never. Never ever ever.”

“Please I’m sorry I— I— I’m sorry I—”

“You don’t need to be sorry, Jeremy. I’m so proud of you. You did it.”

Jeremy paused, because that didn’t make sense. “Proud?” he whimpered.

“So proud.”

Jeremy pulled his head out of his knees. He looked up slowly, slowly so he could duck back down at a moment’s notice.

But the person in front of him was confusing. “You’re… you’re not Michael,” Jeremy murmured.

Something in the person’s face shifted, and he looked sad. Oh, Jeremy didn’t want him to be sad. He cared about this person a lot and didn’t want him to be sad.

“No, Jeremy,” he whispered. “Michael’s over on the couch.”

“Michael…” Jeremy paused, trying to think of what had just happened. “Michael… needs… someone to do something. He’s not okay right now, he needs… something.”

The person in front of Jeremy sniffed and started to cry. “I know, Jeremy,” he whispered. “I know, someone’s already called an ambulance, I made sure, okay?”

Jeremy frowned and reached forward to wipe the person’s tears away. “Don’t cry,” he whispered. “Oh I hate it, please don’t cry.”

The person laughed a little, but it didn’t sound happy, like laughs were supposed to. “Jeremy, do you know who I am?” he asked.

“Yeah, you’re… I love you a whole bunch.”

The person laughed sadly again. “I love you too,” he said.

Jeremy smiled. “Really? Oh, good.” He pulled the person towards him into a hug.

“Do you know where you are?”

“I’m…” Jeremy frowned and thought hard. He leaned back. “School?”

The person smiled now. “That’s right. Do you know why we’re here?”

“Uh…” Jeremy thought hard again. “Squips?”

“What about them?”

“I… I beat them. I won.”

“That’s right, you did. Everyone’s Squips are gone.”

Jeremy paused and looked hard at the person in front of him. It took a couple seconds, but it clicked in his head. “Rich?”

Relief filled Rich’s face, and he pulled Jeremy into another hug. “Yeah, it’s me, Jeremy. It’s okay, I’m here, it’s over.”

“It’s… you…” Jeremy stopped and let out a long breath. “Woah.” He leaned back as pieces started to fill themselves in in his head. It took a minute, but eventually Jeremy let out another sigh, this one relieved. “Holy fuck, that was scary.”

“It’s okay. It’s okay, Jeremy.”

“Come here, please?” Jeremy whispered, reaching out for Rich, who instantly moved forward and wrapped his arms around Jeremy. They breathed for a long time, and after a while, Jeremy sniffed and pulled Rich closer.

“You’re okay,” he whispered.

“I’m okay,” Rich said.

“I was so scared,” Jeremy sobbed, burying his face in Rich’s chest.

“I was too,” Rich said. “Fuck, Jeremy, I was— why would you go after Michael at all?”

“I’m sorry,” Jeremy said instinctively. “No, wait. I’m— I’m not sorry. But I’ll explain.”

Rich smiled proudly at him. “Okay,” he said. “Good.”

Jeremy got out the story of what had happened, from Michael destroying the Mountain Dew Red, to Analyn and Rachel, to Stephanie, to their plan of fighting the Squips and how it had ended up.

“Oh, Jeremy,” Rich said, pulling Jeremy closer to him. “I’m so sorry you had to deal with that.”

“I’m alright,” Jeremy said, though he really didn’t feel like it. “I’m just so glad we’re done.”

“Me too,” Rich said.

A couple seconds later the door slammed open, and Jeremy cried out and covered his ears with his hands.

“It’s okay,” Rich said, moving so he was between Jeremy and the door. “It’s Analyn and Rachel.”

Jeremy stayed where he was.

“Analyn says they’re sorry they scared you,” Rich said quietly. “They’re just here for Michael.”

“Tell her it’s okay,” Jeremy murmured, and leaned further into Rich’s side.

He vaguely registered Rich talking and Analyn and Rachel walking towards where he knew Michael was, and then leaving again.

“No, they need to take Michael,” Jeremy murmured, trying to sit up. “He needs help.”

“Shh, it’s okay, Jeremy, they did take Michael,” Rich said softly. “We’re the only ones in here now.”

Jeremy let out a sigh and leaned back into Rich.

“Do you want to stay here for now or go out there?”

“Stay,” Jeremy said quickly. “I’m tired.”

There was a pause before Rich leaned closer to Jeremy’s ear. “There’s a prop bed in the corner,” he said softly. “Do you want to take a nap?”

Jeremy nodded.

“Okay, you’re gonna have to stand up for a second.”

Jeremy nodded again, and Rich stood up as well as helped Jeremy stand at the same time, and then they both wandered over to the prop bed and laid down.

“Ugh, no blankets. This is a terrible prop bed,” Jeremy muttered.

“I’ll keep you warm,” Rich said. “With my body heat.”

Jeremy laughed. “Shut up,” he said, shoving Rich’s arm even as he snuggled closer to him.

Even with no blankets, it wasn’t long before they both fell asleep.

…

Jeremy was going to stay home from school for a month.

Well, to be fair, he wasn’t alone in that. The whole school was being investigated due to what people were calling “serial seizures.” It was a new phenomenon. He felt kinda bad about that.

No one in the school sure did, though. Jeremy and Rich got so many thank you letters and calls and visits in the next couple days that eventually Paul had to tell everyone to go away because they needed space. Everyone seemed to understand that, and backed off immediately.

And the space was nice. Jenna, Christine, Brooke, Jake, Chloe, and Madeline, as well as Analyn and Rachel, all visited a couple times, but other than that it was just Jeremy, Rich, Paul, and Matt, who was staying for a couple days to check up on Rich before going home.

It took almost a week to hear the news Jeremy was simultaneously dreading and hoping for. No one had to say it out loud.

Paul just walked into Jeremy’s bedroom doorway while he and Rich were both playing World of Warcraft, holding a cell phone, and looking nervous. “You know, no one expects anything of you, bud,” he said. Jeremy nodded.

Paul smiled and nodded encouragingly back and headed back out.

Jeremy didn’t say anything about it at first, since visiting hours were over at that point anyway. It wasn’t until later that night that he brought it up to Rich. They were both sleeping in the same bed again, partly due to how long they’d missed doing it and partly due to nightmares. Jeremy pulled back from where they were tucked into each other’s chests and looked at Rich.

“I know you have an opinion,” he said.

Rich sighed. “I do.”

“I’d like to hear it.”

Rich looked over at Jeremy. “I think you should wait until it’s been longer,” he said. “I think trying to talk to Michael right out of the gate is a bad idea. And,” he sighed again. “I think there isn’t much I can do to stop you.”

“I don’t want him to think he’s alone,” Jeremy said softly. “Being alone sucks.”

“I know.”

Jeremy smiled a little at Rich as he was once again reminded of just how much they had in common, and how much they were things that people shouldn’t have to have in common.

“I get to talk to him first.”

Jeremy’s gaze turned curious. “Why?”

“Just let me, please.”

“Okay.”

Rich sighed in what sounded like relief. “Thank you.”

Jeremy tucked himself back into Rich’s chest, and fell asleep pretty quickly.

…

Rich hadn’t been to the upper floors of the hospital since the week they spent talking to the Enforcers— many of whom were still there. Someone would have to check on them later. Rich absolutely forbade Jeremy from doing it, and eventually Matt had offered, claiming the fact that he was studying to be a therapist as a valid reason he should be the one to do it. (That, and the fact that he was far less traumatized than anyone else there.)

But today, Rich was there to talk to Michael. Before Jeremy did. Which was critical. Jeremy still didn’t seem to understand why, and Rich wasn’t going to tell him why.

As the three of them, including Paul, approached Michael’s room, they came across Analyn and Rachel talking in the hall. Neither of them looked surprised to see the three of them there. Rich left Jeremy and Paul to talk with them and stepped into the room.

Michael was laying on the bed by the window. He turned to see Rich coming towards him and looked surprised, which made sense— Rich was probably about the last person he expected to see.

“So.” Rich sat in the chair by his bed. “You didn’t die. Shame.”

Michael blinked. “Excuse me?”

“Well, if you were dead, then Jeremy wouldn’t be waiting outside the door to talk to you, and that would make both of our lives much easier.”

Michael’s eyes widened. “Jeremy’s here?”

“He is. Not that you deserve to talk to him.”

Michael looked a little hurt. Good. They were getting somewhere. “Hey, I know, but—”

“But what? You’re gonna give some excuse? You think you deserve to see Jeremy after everything you’ve done? Or did you just happen to somehow forget the fact that you’ve treated him terribly for five years straight?”

“But— I—”

“What? What, Michael? You have some kind of defense? You think you deserve some kind of pity, or a second chance, or what? Why would you? Why would you possibly deserve to be within a hundred feet of Jeremy ever again? Huh? Huh? Why would you after the way you treated him? Do we need to go over the way you treated him?”

“But I never wanted to!” Michael cried.

Rich stopped and leaned back in the chair. “Okay.”

Michael’s anger faded and he stared at Rich. “What?”

“Okay, fair point.”

Michael gaped at him. “What? What just happened?”

Rich sighed. “Michael, for all my speeches about how fault doesn’t matter anymore, it seems to matter very much to you, and as much as I know Jeremy wants to try and fix things with you, I also know it’s going to go down in flames if he’s still scared of you and you still blame yourself. So yeah, you never wanted to hurt Jeremy. You were forced to. It’s not your fault, okay? Stop thinking it is.”

Michael sat back on the bed and seemed very deep in thought. Eventually, he nodded. “Okay,” he said softly. “I mean, I don’t think it’s that simple, but… I’ll try.”

“Good. Now I’m gonna bring Jeremy in.”

Michael nodded. “Please,” he whispered.

…

Jeremy was incredibly grateful for Rich. He did want to see Michael, badly, but he couldn’t do it alone. At the same time, he wasn’t really sure he wanted his dad to be there to stare over his shoulder either. Rich understood all of that and didn’t judge him for it.

So when Jeremy walked forward and sat in the chair next to the bed, Rich was there to drag another one over from the other side of the room and plant himself right next to Jeremy, taking his hand to hold.

“So,” Jeremy started hesitantly, squeezing Rich’s hand as his own started to shake. “What’s going on with the doctors saying you’re malnourished and sleep deprived?”

Michael coughed awkwardly. “Um.”

“Well his Squip had him up past midnight every night doing a bunch of random shit,” Rich said. “I tried to pay attention, but a lot of times they’d purposely start right after I fell asleep. I couldn’t tell you about the malnourished part, though.”

Both of them turned back towards Michael, who as a result looked away. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he muttered.

They were all quiet for another moment. Jeremy wasn’t going to force him to talk about anything he didn’t want to. It’s not like he didn’t already know most of what Squips did anyway.

“Are you okay?” Michael asked softly, turning back to face Jeremy. “Last thing I remember was seeing you running away.”

“I’m alright,” Jeremy said, and then stopped. “Actually, no, I’m not,” he corrected. “I’m better than I was right then, but… honestly, I’m not doing so great.”

“Yeah, me too,” Michael muttered.

“Hey, here’s to being fucked up!” Rich called, raising his and Jeremy’s linked hands. Jeremy laughed and nudged Rich with his shoulder, before leaning against him.

“Uh, Jeremy?” Michael said. Jeremy could hear his voice almost shaking. He was looking at Rich, even as he talked to him. “About what you said at the Play, I get it if you didn’t mean it.”

What he said? What was he referring to? And why was he looking at Rich—

Oh.

Oh, fuck.

Had he actually said that out loud?

“What did you say?” Rich asked, looking over at Jeremy curiously.

Jeremy whirled to Rich in a panic because holy shit he was a  _ horrible _ boyfriend and Rich was going to dump him if he said anything—

“Woah, hang on, it’s okay!” Rich said, holding his hands up as he picked up on Jeremy’s fear. “It’s alright, you don’t have to tell me!”

No, no, that didn’t work either. He did have to tell Rich. He couldn’t keep something like that from him. Because the problem was that… Jeremy  _ did _ mean it. And not in the platonic way that would have been fine. He meant it in the way that caused so many problems.

“I do,” Jeremy said eventually. “I have to tell you.”

“Okay, well—” Rich glanced over at Michael. “Not here.”

Jeremy nodded, because that was the best idea he’d heard in a long time. He took Rich’s hand and squeezed it tightly, before slowly looking back over at Michael, who looked like someone had just killed a puppy in front of him. “I— I didn’t mean—” he stammered.

“No, it’s okay,” Jeremy said. “It isn’t your fault.”

“It—” Michael stopped. He looked uncomfortable, but also like he wasn’t going to argue with Jeremy.

They were all quiet for a moment as it became obvious that no one knew quite what to say.

“Fuck.” Michael buried his head in his hands. “This was a horrible idea.”

Jeremy bit his tongue and resisted the sudden urge to apologize. It was helped a little by Michael continuing to talk.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Just go.”

But that was the opposite of helpful.

“I don’t—” Jeremy started and looked away. He took a minute to try and gather his resolve. Rich squeezed his hand, but didn’t say anything. “I don’t want to leave you here, Michael,” he said.

“Why?” Michael snapped, glaring up at Jeremy. Jeremy flinched and leaned as far away as he could without getting out of his chair. “I don’t understand, why do you still care about me? Just go, it would be better for everyone if you just left me alone!”

Jeremy looked away and squeezed Rich’s hand way too hard.

“Hey,” Rich said as gently as he could while also sounding firm. “Maybe stop yelling, Michael.”

Michael stopped, and seemed to realize how scared Jeremy was now. “Fuck,” he whispered. “I’m sorry. Jeremy, I— I’m—”

Jeremy peeked back over at Michael from halfway behind Rich, and saw about a dozen conflicting emotions cross his face at once before he seemed to give up and break under the weight of them. He buried his head in his knees and took a couple deep staggering breaths that made his shoulders start shaking. It took Jeremy a minute to realize he was sobbing.

Jeremy’s fear faded a little bit. “Michael,” he said, climbing up from the chair and moving slowly over to the bed. Rich moved with him and kept holding on to his hand.

Michael leaned back on the bed again and wrapped his arms around his middle in what looked like a sad excuse for a hug. “Jeremy,” he choked out. “I— I—”

Pushing past the anxiety in his chest, Jeremy leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Michael. “Hey, it’s okay,” he whispered. “It’s gonna be okay now.”

“I’m so sorry,” Michael sobbed into Jeremy’s chest.

Jeremy still wasn’t sure what he was going to say to that yet, so instead he just shushed Michael and pulled him closer. His fear was helped a little due to Michael being so incredibly broken and vulnerable right now. That was about the last thing Jeremy was used to seeing from him.

It took a while for Michael to stop crying, and by that point Jeremy had shed more than a few tears himself, and figured out what he wanted to say.

He took a deep breath and pulled back from Michael, trying not to seem as scared and submissive as he felt. That probably wasn’t helped by the fact that he was staring at the floor.

“Look,” he muttered. “I’m not saying that it’s going to be easy, or that you’re not going to have to regain a  _ lot _ of trust, but… I don’t blame you. Anymore. And I want…” Jeremy bit his lip. “I want things to be  _ good _ with you, Michael. I want them to be like they used to.”

“I want that too,” Michael murmured.

Before anyone could say anything else, a nurse poked her head into the room. “Michael? Do you want to talk to your mothers?”

“No,” Michael snapped. Jeremy flinched, and Michael immediately softened the glare on his face.

The nurse looked surprised, but nodded and walked back out.

Rich spoke up first. “Dude, why are you pissed at your moms?”

“I’m not—” Michael winced. “I just—”

“You’re mad at them for not noticing,” Jeremy said quietly.

“They could have done something,” Michael muttered. “They could have helped you.”

“They helped you,” Jeremy countered. “That night you yelled at them, they came over to my house, and we told them everything. They were there at the Play.”

“Well, that’s different,” Michael said, waving his hand dismissively. “Who cares about me?”

Jeremy exchanged a glance with Rich.

“What?” Michael asked.

“Michael, a lot of people care about you,” Jeremy said softly. “Your moms, and my dad, and me. I’m willing to bet you can put Jackson on the list.”

“You can add me too,” Rich admitted.

“But— that’s not—”

“Michael, we’re not lying to you,” Jeremy said. He pulled his chair forward and sat in it again in order to be closer to eye level with Michael.

“I know that,” Michael said. “But—”

“Michael, remember that conversation we had about this not being your fault?” Rich said. “You don’t deserve anything that happened to you.”

“Yes I do,” Michael protested.

“I thought that about me,” Jeremy said. “Do you think I deserved everything that happened?”

“What? Of course not! But that’s different.”

“How?”

“Because you’re you. You’re a good person, and you deserve good things.”

“And you don’t?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because—” Michael looked away. “Because I hurt you,” he whispered. “You said yourself you’re not okay yet.”

“No, but I’m better. And I’ll be okay eventually.” Jeremy took a breath. “I know you’re hurting. And it’s okay that you’re mad. But you should try and fix things with your moms too. They feel really bad already. They already apologized to me for not noticing anything.”

Michael was silent for a moment, and Jeremy was about to say something else when Michael spoke up suddenly. “But what if they hate me?”

“Michael, they’re your moms,” Jeremy said, narrowing his eyes in concern. “They love you.”

“No, they loved who they thought I was, but I’m not the same person I was five years ago,” Michael said.

“Neither am I,” Jeremy said. “They still love me.”

“Well, that’s different. You’re you.”

“I feel like we’re going in circles here.”

Michael looked away, and sighed. “I’ll talk to them,” he muttered. “But…” he hesitated. “Can I do it alone?”

“Of course,” Jeremy said, standing up. “We’ll go get them and give you some space.” Rich stood up and they both started towards the door.

“Jeremy?” Michael asked hesitantly as Jeremy was about to reach for the door handle.

Jeremy turned back around. “Yeah?”

“Please come back tomorrow?”

“Promise,” Jeremy said with a nod to affirm his statement, and with that, he and Rich headed out.

Analyn and Rachel were standing across the hallway, and neither looked happy at the moment.

“Hey,” Jeremy said, walking over. “He says he wants to talk to you.” Jeremy bit his lip as he tried to think about how much to reveal. “He thinks you’re mad at him.”

Analyn pulled in a sharp breath, and nodded. “Thank you, Jeremy,” she said, pulling him into a quick hug which Jeremy reciprocated easily. He gave one to Rachel afterwards, and then waved after them as they both walked in to talk to Michael.

The second the door closed after them Jeremy deflated, and let out a shaky breath.

Rich walked over and grabbed his hand. “Okay, we’re going home,” he said softly. “And you’re taking the rest of the day to rest.”

Jeremy couldn’t find it in himself to argue, so he just nodded and followed Rich down to the front of the hospital, where Paul was now waiting with the car.

Rich climbed into the back seat along with Jeremy, who curled up against him.

“Thanks for not talking a lot,” he muttered. “And just kind of being there.”

“You’re welcome,” Rich said, and with that Jeremy promptly fell asleep.

He was woken up a little later by Rich nudging him awake and letting him know they were home. They both made it up to Jeremy’s room and shut the door before Jeremy burst into tears.

“Hey,” Rich said, suddenly very concerned. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m a terrible boyfriend,” Jeremy sobbed.

“What? You absolutely are not, what are you talking about?” Rich pulled Jeremy’s hands gently towards him and rested their foreheads together.

Jeremy pulled away and walked over to sit on his bed. Rich walked forward a couple steps and stood in front of Jeremy.

“Michael mentioned the thing I said at the Play,” Jeremy whispered. He sniffed and wiped some of his tears away. “I need to tell you something.”

It took much too long, but Jeremy got out the full story of what had happened at the Play, including the details, which happened to include him telling Michael that he loved him.

Rich didn’t say anything as Jeremy told him. Afterwards he was still quiet for much too long, and Jeremy tried to prepare himself to get broken up with, but he couldn’t manage to get there between his sobs and hugging his arms to his chest.

“Okay,” Rich said finally. He walked forward and sat down on the bed next to Jeremy. “We’re going to talk about that tomorrow.”

“What?” Jeremy asked.

“You need a break from intense emotions for a while, and I need a little bit of time to process. But Jeremy,” Rich took Jeremy’s hands and squeezed them, but that didn’t make any sense, because that was their comfort thing, and why would Rich try to comfort Jeremy right now?

“I’m not upset with you,” Rich said, and what?

“But—”

“Nope. Not mad. You can’t control your feelings, Jeremy. And you never cheated on me, or told me that I wasn’t enough for you or that you weren’t satisfied. Do you not love me anymore?”

“No no no no no! I love you  _ so much!” _ Jeremy cried desperately, pulling Rich as close as he dared.

“Then it’s okay. I’m willing to bet you didn’t even realize this yourself until recently.”

Jeremy slowly shook his head.

“Then how could I possibly fault you for  _ not _ acting on feelings you didn’t even know you had? It’s alright, and we’ll talk about it tomorrow after we’ve had some time to rest. Now let’s go back to sleep.”

Jeremy threw himself into Rich’s arms. “I love you so much,” he whispered.

“You already said that,” Rich joked, nudging him gently.

“I always mean it,” Jeremy said as they both moved to lay down on his bed. He tucked himself into Rich’s chest, relishing in the fact that he somehow still had the world’s most amazing boyfriend.

It was only as Jeremy was about to fall asleep that he realized something else. “Wait, if you’re not mad at me, what do you need time to process?”

“We’ll talk about it tomorrow, remember? Just get some sleep.”

“…Okay.”


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The new tag I made for eating disorders applies to this chapter.

School being closed did not mean that Jeremy and Rich never saw anyone, but it was more unusual for them to see any of their friends outside the house. Granted, they were starting to go out more, so that might have played a factor. But it was still a little bit of a surprise to run into Madeline, Jake, and Chloe at the mall.

“Hey guys,” Rich said, as they both stopped at the table. “What’s up?”

“Oh, hey Rich, hey Jeremy!” Jake said, smiling up at them. “We’re just kind of hanging here right now. How are you guys?”

“On a date?” Madeline asked, raising a teasing eyebrow.

Jeremy laughed a little. “Something like that.”

“Hey, have you seen Madeline’s songwriting skills?” Chloe asked, sliding a notebook towards Jeremy and Rich. “She’s amazing.”

“Oh, please, I’m not that amazing,” Madeline muttered, looking down.

“Yes, she is,” Chloe insisted. “And she can draw too.”

“Chloe, stop it,” Madeline grumbled, starting to blush.

Jake gave Jeremy and Rich a look, as if saying “Yes, I see what’s happening here too.”

Rich snorted.

“Okay, well we didn’t mean to interrupt,” Jeremy said. “We actually came here for something entirely different.”

“You can stay if you want,” Madeline said. “We don’t mind.”

“Nah, it’s time sensitive,” Jeremy said. “But we can come by afterwards if you want.”

“Please do,” Chloe said. Jeremy and Rich both nodded and waved after them as they started off towards their destination.

“He’s supposed to leave in ten minutes according to Stephanie,” Jeremy said, checking his phone again. “We’re catching him right at the end of a shift.”

They both walked into Spencer’s Gifts to find it mostly empty. Lucas was helping a single customer at the counter.

When he noticed Jeremy and Rich, his eyes darkened.

“Excuse me ma’am,” he said sugar-sweetly, “but these are high priority customers.”

“Oh, no please,” Rich waved his hand dismissively. “Finish with her first.”

Lucas glared at them, but finished helping the woman, ushering her out a little faster than really necessary, before nodding towards the back of the store.

Both of them followed, and Rich leaned casually against the door frame while Jeremy stepped forward to where new bottles of Mountain Dew Red were sitting on a table. “We’ll be taking these,” Jeremy said, pointing at them.

Lucas raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“According to Stephanie, Squips have a nasty habit of sticking around after you shut them off,” Rich said. “And while we don’t know if that will affect the versions that we’ve been dealing with, it’s better safe than sorry.”

Lucas smiled. “Sure. That’ll be about $2,000. Oh, and I normally like the clientele to come to me directly. So I’ll need to speak with your best friend,” he said to Jeremy.

“Oh, Michael comes near you when hell freezes over.” Jeremy stepped forward again. “And no, we’re not paying for them.”

Lucas chuckled. “You’re cute. So I’m giving you them for free? Or else you’ll do what?”

“We’re in contact with the girl who works at Payless,” Jeremy said. “Oh, that’s also Stephanie, by the way. She has access to some camera footage from a couple years ago of you assaulting a 12 year old.”

“Yikes. Sounds incriminating,” Rich said.

“Oh, it is Rich. It is. Especially when you consider that Stephanie also has the means of taking the Squips she has at her disposal and using them to prove to the cops that they exist. She also has a story that is pretty incriminating in and of itself and that would be backed up by about 500 people, about you forcing that 12 year old you assaulted to take one of those Squips without his consent.”

Lucas snorted. “Do you think I’m an idiot? Stephanie deleted that footage you’re talking about.”

“Did she, though?” Jeremy asked, raising an eyebrow. “She’s a lot smarter than you give her credit for, Lucas. What she deleted was the footage incriminating her, and she kept copies of the rest of it.”

“So you have no proof of the fact that we gave one to Michael!” Lucas cried.

“Oh shit, he’s right,” Rich said casually. “Wait, but don’t we have evidence of the fact that Michael has a dormant Squip and the fact that you dragged him into the back of a store that happens to sell Squips? Oh gosh, that sounds sort of problematic for you.”

“That’s circumstantial!” Lucas snapped.

Jeremy shrugged. “Sure. Except it will be backed up by Michael himself, with pieces filled in by his moms, me, and oh yeah, 500 other people.”

Lucas started to glare at them.

“So I return to my original statement: we will be taking these,” Jeremy said, starting to pick up the bottles of Mountain Dew Red and put them in the backpack he’d brought with him. “Along with any future bottles you get.”

_ “Fine,” _ Lucas growled out. “But if you want other soda you pay for it like anyone else.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Jeremy said. “Or maybe you could take it up with our 500 friends. Who have had Squips. Because of you.”

Lucas looked about ready to break something. Jeremy decided to help him out and knocked over a couple dozen bottles of Surge on his way out.

When they walked out of Spencer’s Gifts, Stephanie was standing across the hallway. She gave them a thumbs up with an eyebrow raised as a question.

Jeremy and Rich gave her a thumbs up back, and she smiled before walking away herself. Well, it’s not like they were going to hang out or something.

“So,” Rich said. “Back to Jake, Chloe, and Madeline?”

“Yeah, that sounds fun.”

…

“Okay.” Rich didn’t mention what Jeremy had told him the day before until that night, right before they were about to go to bed. Jeremy did his best to keep his mind off it throughout the day, and it was helped a little by spending time with Jake, Chloe, and Madeline that afternoon. But he’d known they’d still have to talk about it eventually, and he was always sure he was going to be anxious about it.

“So I’ve given this some thought,” Rich said. “And if it’s something you’d want to consider, I’d be open to talking about something like a polyamorous relationship.”

Jeremy blinked in surprise from where he was sitting on his bed across from Rich. “What?”

“A polyamorous relationship.” Rich tipped his head in curiosity. “Do you know what that is?”

Jeremy nodded, but he was still a little surprised and confused. “You’re saying I’d date Michael and you at the same time?”

“If you want. And you know…” Rich rubbed the back of his neck and cleared his throat. “I wouldn’t exactly be opposed to that part either.”

Jeremy’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. Not right away. But… yeah.”

“Wow.” Jeremy sat back on the bed, leaning against his headboard. “I don’t know. I didn’t even consider… I don’t think I’d even be ready for a relationship with Michael yet.”

“Hey, that’s completely understandable. No one said you have to make this decision right now. I just thought I’d put the idea out there in case you want to think about it.”

“I… do. Want to think about it. Thanks.”

Jeremy said nothing for another minute. Then he looked back up at Rich. “But not at this very moment.”

“World of Warcraft?”

“Yes please.”

…

The meetings were Brooke’s idea. The staff of the school that had been squipped was trying to get knowledge out there, at least to some extent, that something traumatic had happened to the students of Middleborough High, and that they would need a professional to talk to, but lack of resources and believability didn’t make it a very likely goal to aim for, and not everyone could afford therapy themselves.

So Brooke had suggested the idea of switching the after school meetings, which had previously been used for telling people what their jobs were in regards to the Plan™, into a place where anyone could talk about anything they needed to with no judgement. They would be even more regular once school started again, but for now they were using the school cafeteria once a week. There were some fairly strict rules, the most important ones being that anyone was welcome, and if you laughed at, made fun of, or belittled something someone else was talking about, you were escorted out immediately.

Jeremy was surprised by all of the inquiries he and Rich got about whether or not they were going.

“I didn’t know we were allowed,” he admitted to Brooke. “We never had Squips.”

“No, but you were directly involved,” Brooke said. “It might be good for you to come. And if it isn’t helpful, you don’t have to come back.”

Jeremy exchanged a glance with Rich, who shrugged. “Might be nice to talk about everything,” he said. “Without having to use a cover story like you do for therapy.”

Jeremy considered for a minute, and nodded. “Alright.”

That was how they found themselves sitting in the school cafeteria on Friday afternoon. There were a lot of people there, and all of them were staring at either Rich or Jeremy in a way that made him want to curl up under his chair.

“Hi, everybody! Thanks for coming this week,” Brooke said, standing up from her chair at a table near the front of the room. “And yes, as you can see, Rich and Jeremy are here. Get over it, ‘kay?”

A few chuckles went around the room, and Jeremy got the sense that Brooke was pretty no-nonsense about this stuff.

That ended up being helpful, because despite the fact that everyone in the school seemed to absolutely love Jeremy and Rich now, after a little bit of conversation and Brooke telling a couple people to back off, things felt a little more normal.

He talked to a lot of the Enforcers that had turned their Squips back on after the first time they’d been shut off. A lot of them found the most comfort in each other, which was a pretty common theme, in that people got the most help from the others who had gone through the most similar things to them.

Jeremy found it surprisingly easy to talk to Emery. She apologized for not doing anything involving Michael, which Jeremy dismissed immediately, and then they connected over a lot of the things that had been said to them by Michael and the Squip. Emery was dealing with a lot of the exhaustion and anger that Jeremy had first felt when he stopped being friends with Michael. He ended up inviting her over if she wanted to just sit for a while, watch a movie or read a book or just sit in the quiet without any expectations. Emery seemed to really appreciate it and Jeremy had a feeling she’d take him up on the offer.

By the end of the meeting, both he and Rich agreed that coming back next week seemed like a good idea.

Brooke said goodbye to them as they left the meeting. They had to leave a little early, because the day was marked by another occasion too, being the fact that Matt was going back to college tomorrow. So the four of them were going to have one last dinner that night, before he had to leave.

Jeremy was planning on inviting all three of the Mells too, and so they all headed over to the hospital after leaving school. Michael was getting out that afternoon, which was perfect timing.

Analyn and Rachel were in the room when they all got there. Paul hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to Analyn and Rachel yet, so the three of them headed over to the other side of the room. Rich gave Jeremy a look, and when Jeremy gave him a thumbs up, he nodded at him and headed over to talk to the other adults. Jeremy walked over to where Michael was standing by the bed.

“You came back,” Michael said.

“Said I would, didn’t I?” Jeremy said. “Matt’s leaving to go back to college, so we’re all having dinner together before he does. We wanted to invite you and your moms.”

“Oh.” Michael looked surprised. “Really?”

Jeremy nodded, shifting around a little on his feet to try and get rid of the discomfort and fear he still felt. “I was just thinking if we really wanted to try being friends again, we should actually… you know. Try.”

“That might be a good idea,” Michael muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Are you sure you’re okay with it?”

Jeremy smiled a bit, not used to getting such a question from Michael but appreciating it nonetheless. “I’m okay. Thanks for asking, Michael.”

Michael gave a brief smile and kicked at the ground with his sneaker. There was about ten seconds of awkward silence before they were rescued by Rich.

“Hey, we’re heading out. Matt is waiting on us at home. You guys coming?”

“Coming,” Jeremy called back and started over towards the door.

Analyn, Rachel, and Michael all drove to Jeremy’s house in a seperate car, so Jeremy got a minute in the backseat of his own to prepare himself while Rich and Paul talked in the front seat.

They stopped when they parked outside the house, and Paul turned to face Jeremy. “Are you sure about this, Private? I am perfectly willing to look like a huge jerk and send them all home even though they’re already here.”

Jeremy smiled a little. “Well, thanks for having my back, Dad. But I’m sure.”

“Let me know if that changes.”

“I will,” Jeremy said, and they all climbed out of the car.

Having Michael in his house again was… an experience. It hadn’t happened since the night Jeremy found out about Squips. His entire world had changed in so many ways since then, it was a little mind-boggling.

Dinner wasn’t going to be for a couple hours, which resulted in Matt, Analyn, Rachel, and Paul all sitting at the table to talk, and Jeremy, Rich, and Michael ending up upstairs.

(Having Michael in his room again was an entirely different experience.)

“So hey,” Rich said, and Jeremy turned from where they were playing World of Warcraft as Michael watched from the bed. “You did tell the guy from this game who told you about Squips what happened, right?”

Jeremy nodded. “He wants to meet to see if he can get a bottle of Mountain Dew Red for his brother. We set up a meeting place in a couple weeks, just before school starts again.”

“You heard about Squips from a guy on that game?” Michael asked softly.

Jeremy tensed, having forgotten for a second that Michael was there. “Uh, yeah,” he said hesitantly, glancing back at Michael.

“Oh,” Michael muttered. “That’s probably why my Squip deleted your account then.”

“Did you even know about that?” Rich asked curiously, after a couple seconds too long of silence.

Michael shook his head. “Not until Jeremy yelled at me about it in the bathroom at that party,” he said. “I’m… sorry. About that. I know you enjoyed it.”

“I mean…” Jeremy looked back at the computer. “I still do. Do you… do you want to try?”

Michael blinked up at him. “Me?”

“Yeah. You used to like playing video games too. Probably more than I did, honestly.”

“I don’t know,” Michael said, fidgeting with the bottom of his shirt.

“You don’t have to,” Rich said.

Michael seemed to give it another second of thought, and climbed up from where he was sitting. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll try it.”

Jeremy climbed up from his chair, trying to squish the feeling that Michael shouldn’t be allowed to touch his account anymore.

They helped him make a character, explaining what different options meant when Michael asked, and then sat back and watched Michael play for a while. He actually seemed to get the hang of it pretty quickly, although they still hadn’t made it very far before Paul called up the steps that he was starting to make dinner.

“He’s probably making spaghetti again,” Rich laughed a little.

“Oh, yeah, hope you don’t mind that Michael,” Jeremy said. “It’s like the only thing he can manage to do well.”

Michael spun the chair around slowly. “Oh, I’m… not eating,” he said, just before his stomach growled audibly.

Rich raised an eyebrow at him. “Oh what, you’re not hungry?”

“No, I just…” Michael fiddled with the bottom of his shirt and mumbled something.

“What?” Jeremy asked.

“I just don’t think I’ve earned food today, alright?”

Both Jeremy and Rich stared at Michael.

He looked hesitantly between them. “What?”

“Michael,” Jeremy said slowly. “You don’t  _ earn _ food, it’s something you need to survive.”

Michael looked down and started fidgeting with his shirt again. He shook his head.

Jeremy exchanged a look of concern with Rich, who looked like he was trying to come up with something to say.

“Michael, what happened?” Jeremy asked suddenly.

Michael looked up. “What?”

“What happened? What did the Squip do to you?”

“Uh. Do you want the short list?”

“I’ll take the long one, please.”

Michael stared at him for a moment, then looked down again. “You don’t want to hear the long one,” he mumbled.

“Oh, so you’re back to telling Jeremy what to do again?” Rich asked, keeping his voice soft.

Michael still flinched. “No, I—”

“It’s okay,” Jeremy said softly, as he took Rich’s hand. He did his best to push down the instinct to apologize that had popped up at Michael’s statement and turned back to face him. “I want to hear it, Michael.”

Michael bit his lip, still looking hesitant. Jeremy pulled Rich over to the bed with him and they both sat down before turning to face Michael again.

Michael sighed and started talking.

They had probably about half an hour before dinner was ready, and Michael filled the whole time with his story. It wasn’t easy to hear. Jeremy didn’t let go of Rich’s hand the entire time, and Rich squeezed Jeremy’s hands at times his breathing started to quicken. Jeremy could tell Michael was trying hard not to cry when he talked about what had happened with Jeremy right in the beginning of it all, and he couldn’t say he was far from there himself. Michael looked down at his shoes the whole time he talked about the days he wasn’t at school before he came back sick. Jeremy was trying really hard not to get outwardly angry, as he didn’t think that would help the situation. Rich filled in a couple pieces too, once they got to the time period he was at Michael’s house.

No one said anything for a while when Michael finally finished. Michael was sitting with his hands clenched as fists on his legs, staring at the ground and looking like one more thing would set him off. Finally, Jeremy stood up, walked across to the desk chair, and pulled Michael into a hug.

Michael immediately burst into tears.

In a couple seconds they both ended up on the floor, and Rich joined from the other side a couple seconds after that.

“I don’t—” Michael gasped. “I’m sorry— I—”

“It’s okay,” Jeremy whispered. “Michael, I forgive you.”

Michael buried his head in Jeremy’s chest and let out what sounded more like a scream than a sob. Jeremy’s breath caught and he tried not to tense up. Rich moved one of his arms to wrap around Jeremy and started rubbing his back, and Jeremy let out a long breath before pulling Michael closer and squeezing him tightly.

“I don’t— I don’t know what to do anymore, Jeremy,” Michael choked out. “I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I hate all of my clothes, I— I don’t even know what I like to do! I— I can’t—” Michael couldn’t get any more words out after that.

Rich nudged Jeremy gently, and when Jeremy looked over at him, he nodded towards the closet.

Jeremy narrowed his eyes in confusion.

Rich mouthed something, and Jeremy did his best to shrug with his eyes.

Rich sighed, pulled away from them, and walked over to the closet. Michael didn’t seem to notice all the movement until Rich sat back down with a loud sigh and something clutched in his arms.

“I think this is yours,” Rich said, handing Michael the red hoodie with the patches on it. “I don’t know how much it’ll help with anything, but Jeremy made it for you a long time ago.”

Michael sniffed hard and wiped at his eyes before he took the hoodie hesitantly. “You made me a hoodie?” he asked Jeremy quietly.

“I, um, wanted to cheer you up,” Jeremy said. “But I eventually kinda figured you wouldn’t like it.”

Michael ran his hands over the hoodie and the patches before his eyes welled up with tears again. Jeremy was about to apologize when Michael leaped forward and wrapped his arms around him again.

Jeremy yelped and almost tried to push him off as his anxiety spiked, before Michael started talking. “I love it,” he said. “Oh my god, thank you Jeremy. I—”

Jeremy blinked away a couple tears of his own and squeezed Michael tightly again. “We’re gonna be here to help you, okay?” he whispered. “We’re gonna be here to help you with all of it. You’re not going to have to do it alone.”

“I don’t deserve help,” Michael said.

“You  _ do,” _ Jeremy insisted. “And even if you didn’t, you  _ need _ help. It’s okay. It’s okay to need help. Lord knows I needed help. I still do.”

“I’m sorry,” Michael said instantly.

“That’s not my point, Michael. Look, feeling overwhelmed, feeling worthless, feeling like you don’t deserve good things? I dealt with all of those. I’m still working through a lot of them. I can  _ help _ you.”

“But I’m the reason you went through all of that!” Michael protested.

Jeremy grabbed Michael’s hands. “No. You’re. Not,” he said firmly, squeezing Michael’s hands gently on each word. “That’s the Squip’s fault, not yours.”

“But— but I was the person you saw. You never saw the Squip. And all those things you’re working through, I— I won’t help you, I’ll just make it all  _ harder _ for you,” Michael said. “You’re scared of me.”

“Michael, I’m working on that too,” Jeremy said. “I  _ want _ to work on that too.”

“Why?”

Jeremy leaned forward. “Because I love you, remember? I want you to be happy.”

Michael sniffed. “I want you to be happy too,” he whispered.

“Then let me help you,” Jeremy murmured. “Because that’s going to make us both happy in the long run.”

Michael leaned his head heavily against Jeremy’s shoulder and said nothing for a couple seconds. Finally, he whispered, “Promise?”

“I promise,” Jeremy whispered back. Michael leaned against Jeremy’s shoulder and breathed for a couple seconds. He seemed to be waiting for Jeremy to move, which he eventually did by nudging Michael gently backwards. “And hey, while you’re working through this, we all decide if you’ve earned food, got it? And today, you definitely have.”

Michael laughed a little. “Got it.”

Both of them turned to look at Rich, who was sitting off to the side on the bed. “Sorry for ignoring you, Rich,” Jeremy said.

Rich shrugged, clearly not bothered. “No, you guys clearly needed that. You’re good at this.”

Jeremy gave him a curious look. “This?”

Rich waved at both of them. “This. Comforting shit. You know each other very well.”

“Uh, thanks,” Michael said, as both of them finally stood up. “But you’re important too.”

“Yeah, seriously, tell us if you don’t feel included, alright?” Jeremy said.

“I will,” Rich said. “Promise. As long as both of you do the same if that ends up happening.”

Jeremy nodded in confirmation, at the same time Michael said “I’ll try.”

“One more hug?” Jeremy said, looking back and forth between both of them.

Rich wrapped an arm around Jeremy in response, who pulled Michael closer until Rich did the same to him.

That’s where they were when Matt talked from the doorway a second later. “Dinner’s ready, unless I’m interrupting?”

Jeremy laughed as they all pulled apart. “What did Dad make?”

“Spaghetti.”

Rich laughed too. “Knew it.”

“Good, let’s eat,” Michael said. Jeremy glanced over to see him pulling the hoodie over his head and adjusting it around his waist. “I’m starving.”

Jeremy smiled at Michael as they all started out of the room.

Rich stopped him at the top of the steps. “We’re not seriously going to decide if he’s earned food, are we?” he asked.

Jeremy rolled his eyes. “No, if he ever asks, I’m gonna tell him to eat something. And I’ll let his moms know too. At least until he can do it himself. I think his moms are already talking about him seeing a therapist. I hope that’ll help.”

“I hope so too,” Rich said, taking Jeremy’s hand and squeezing it. “Especially considering you just told him you love him again.”

Jeremy laughed a little awkwardly. “Oh yeah. I did, didn’t I?”

“Hey, we already had that conversation. I’m good with that.” Rich nudged Jeremy in his side. “I’m proud of you, Jeremy.”

Jeremy smiled at him. “Thanks. Come on, let’s go eat. I’m hungry too.”

“After you,” Rich said, gesturing down the steps, and Jeremy started down them towards the dining room.

…

The three Mells all left after dinner, and since Matt was going to be following them early tomorrow morning, they were all going to bed early so they could get up and see him off.

Rich headed up the stairs to brush his teeth, and Jeremy was about to follow when Matt tapped him on the shoulder and nodded his head towards the kitchen.

Jeremy followed him curiously and found Paul there as well.

“Okay, so,” Matt said. “I’m pretty sure you both have noticed by now that Rich and I can both have a tendency to ignore our problems to help other people.”

“Uh… yeah…” Jeremy muttered, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I think Rich is more bothered by all of this than he’s letting on,” Matt said. “Both everything that happened with the Squips and everything that happened with our dad.”

“We talked about that a little bit already,” Jeremy confirmed. “He said he was pretty sure it was going to hit him when everything was over.”

“Yeah, well now everything is over. I’m sure it is going to hit him soon, if it hasn’t already. And I do need to go back to college, but I wanted to make sure you guys know I’ll be completely willing to come back at a moments notice if need be.”

“We appreciate that,” Paul said. “But we’re also gonna watch out for him too. Trust me, I’ve been keeping a close eye on all three of you.”

“Dad,” Jeremy mumbled, blushing a little bit.

“I’m your father, Jeremy, that’s my job.”

“We are going to look out for Rich,” Jeremy said, partly to get the conversation away from himself before it focused on that. “If it comes up organically, I’ll try to talk to him about it.”

Paul nodded in confirmation.

Matt sighed in relief. “Okay. Good. I just… I worry about him.”

“I know. You’ve had to do that for a long time,” Paul said. “And we’re gonna talk about that too, you know.”

Matt laughed a little. “I would expect nothing less from you,” he said.


	25. Chapter 25

Jeremy had found that Jenna’s favorite thing to do with him and Rich was to do nothing in particular. They would watch movies, or sit around and talk about life, or play World of Warcraft, but they never really made any plans to go out, so when Jenna asked specifically if they wanted to go see a play, both of them were a little surprised.

They were a little less surprised when they learned that Christine was going to be a part of this play. It had been much too late for her to get a part, but she was doing the lighting, and was going to be acting in the next one.

The play was pretty good, although Jeremy admittedly found it a little hard to pay attention due to making whispered jokes with Rich and Jenna the whole time.

After the show ended, they all headed back towards the light box and waited for Christine to come out. And she did, very unceremoniously.

“Christine!” they all cried, and Christine yelped as she looked up at them.

“You. Were. Amazing!” Jenna exclaimed.

“I did the lights,” Christine said in bafflement. “What the heck are you guys even doing here?”

“Exactly!” Jeremy said, completely ignoring the second half of Christine’s statement. “And that blackout between the acts was perfectly timed!”

“The colors you chose fit the mood spectacularly,” Rich said.

“You outshined everyone up there,” Jeremy said. “Get it? Outshined?”

Christine laughed. “Well, thanks for coming,” she said. “But you really didn’t have to.”

“Of course we did,” Jeremy said, wrapping an arm around Christine’s shoulders as they all started back down the steps towards the main seating in the auditorium. “We had to support you.”

“Hey, this is Christine!” Rich called, pointing at her when they came across someone. “She’s our friend! She did the lights!”

The person gave them an awkward thumbs up and walked away as all four of them burst into laughter.

“Come on, we’re going out for ice cream,” Jenna said, holding up her car keys.

“It’s almost midnight.”

“Your point being?”

“Clearly milkshakes fit the tone better?”

“You are absolutely correct, I have been proven wrong.”

So ten minutes later they were all sitting in a diner slurping on milkshakes. Jeremy had gotten fries and was dipping them in his shake as everyone else stared at him in horror.

“You can’t stop me,” Jeremy deadpanned, sticking another three fires in the shake and shoving them all in his mouth at once.

“You’re disgusting,” Rich said.

Jeremy grinned at him through a mouthful of milkshake fries. “Why, thank you!”

“Thanks for coming to that you guys,” Christine said, taking another drink of her own milkshake. “If I’m honest, I kinda needed the support more than I thought I did.”

“Well, that’s great, because I’m bringing Chloe and Madeline tomorrow night,” Jeremy said.

“We’re trying to get them in as many close situations as possible so they’ll just confess already,” Jenna said.

Christine flinched. “And you’re bringing them to something involving me?” she muttered, rubbing the back of her neck.

“Do you not want us to?” Jeremy asked.

“I don’t know,” Christine muttered. “I just… it’s weird being around a lot of people. From school. Right now.”

The three of them exchanged a glance and looked back at Christine. “Do you want to talk about it?” Jeremy asked quietly.

Christine sighed. “I just… hurt a lot of people at our school,” she muttered. “And I thought I was doing the right thing at the time, so it wasn’t even the Squip, it was just me.”

“After the Squip literally brainwashed you,” Rich pointed out. “You can’t take all of the blame.”

“I can’t take none of it either, though.”

“Maybe,” Jenna said. “But… it’s kind of like Jeremy and Michael, isn’t it? They have to work to fix something that neither of them broke by choice. Maybe trying to spend time with the people you hurt and apologizing to them is a good idea.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Christine admitted. She glanced up at Jenna. “How are you?”

“Me? In regards to you?”

Christine nodded.

“I’m good. I spent enough time around you while we were fighting the Squips to realize what a massive dork you are,” Jenna teased.

“Well, still. I’m really sorry.”

Jenna paused, seeming to be a little caught off guard by that. “Thank you,” she said eventually.

“So does anyone else mind if I dip my fries in your milkshake?” Jeremy asked to diffuse the awkward tension before it cropped up. “I ran out.”

Three cries of protest sounded, and the almost-moment of tension was forgotten.

They ended up dropping Christine back off at the auditorium for her car, and then driving Jenna home, since Rich had managed to get his drivers license remarkably quickly (lucky little shit).

“So school starts again next week,” Jeremy said. “Are you guys ready for it?”

“Fuck no,” Rich groaned.

“I’m not,” Jenna said. “I asked my mom if I could stay home a little longer.”

Jeremy turned around from the front seat and smiled back at her. “Good for you.”

“I mean she said no,” Jenna said, and Jeremy laughed. “But I still asked.”

“You can hang out at my house if you need to,” Jeremy said. “Dad knows what’s going on, I’m sure he’ll get it.”

“I might just take you up on that,” Jenna said with a smile, and Jeremy got the feeling she meant it.

They dropped her off five minutes later, and she hesitated as she stepped out of the car.

“Do you mind if I come over a little before the play tomorrow?” she asked.

“Of course not. You want to come have lunch? We can invite everyone else too, and then we can all just head to the play later,” Jeremy said.

“That sounds awesome. See you then,” Jenna said, and headed up the walkway and through her door. Jeremy and Rich then started for home themselves.

“I think I’m going to invite Michael too,” Jeremy said as they pulled into their driveway.

“Yeah? Alright,” Rich said.

“I think he and Christine can probably relate to each other,” Jeremy said as way of explanation, and they both stepped out of the car and walked towards the house.

“You’re probably right,” Rich admitted. “But honestly Jeremy, I just want to go to bed and not think right now.”

“Okay, that’s fair. It is late. Let’s get some sleep.”

…

Paul ended up coming to the performance the next day and going out for milkshakes with them afterwards. He also joined them all with his comments on Christine’s extraordinary lighting abilities, which she had to be getting at least a little sick of, though if she was she didn’t show it.

Michael didn’t say much while he was there, although he still complimented Christine on her lighting. He talked a little bit with Jake due to sitting next to him at the diner, but overall he just looked uncomfortable to be there.

“So I’ve been thinking,” Jeremy said, trying to ease into the topic he really wanted to talk about. He turned to address Christine. “Maybe you and Michael should come to Brooke’s meetings. Everyone there has said they’re really helpful.”

Both Michael and Christine immediately voiced protest.

“I don’t know, I just…” Christine said.

“I’m not sure anyone would want to see me,” Michael muttered.

“Plenty of other Enforcers are there,” Jeremy said to Christine. “And so is Emery,” he said, addressing Michael.

“I just don’t want to make people uncomfortable,” Christine muttered.

“I think I might be too much of an uncomfortable reminder of why they’re all there,” Michael said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“The whole point is that everyone can talk about what happened, without getting scared of anyone judging them,” Rich said.

Both of them still looked unsure.

“Maybe in the future,” Christine said.

“Yeah, maybe,” Michael agreed.

“Well, then why don’t you just make your own group until then?” Jenna said.

Both of them looked over at her in surprise, as if they hadn’t picked up on the fact that they’d been mirroring each other for the past minute. They turned to each other and seemed to realize it.

To give them both a minute to talk in somewhat-private, Jeremy turned back to Madeline and asked how her songwriting was going.

Eventually, Michael and Christine hesitantly joined the conversation again, and what they’d talked about wasn’t brought up again before they left.

It was only after dropping everyone off at their homes and arriving home themselves that Jeremy brought it up again.

Rich declared he was going to brush his teeth and go to bed, as doing this for two nights in a row would make even him exhausted, and then Jeremy spoke up on the way up the stairs with his father.

“So that went pretty well with Christine and Michael, I think,” he said. “I hope they do manage to help each other.”

“I hope so too,” Paul said. “I am incredibly proud of you, Jeremy.”

Jeremy blinked in surprise. “Oh. Thank you. Wait, you are?”

“Of course,” Paul said. “You’ve been through so much, and you’ve come out so much more mature and compassionate for it. You managed to figure out how Michael and Christine could benefit from each other, and brought it up in a way that helped them do that and will potentially help them be more comfortable with Brooke’s meetings in the future. And that’s only one example.”

Jeremy looked down and fidgeted with his shirt, trying to ignore his burning cheeks. “Um. Thanks Dad.”

“Jeremy,” Paul said quietly, and Jeremy looked up again as they stopped outside his door. A second later he was wrapped in a hug.

“I cannot tell you how proud I am to have you as my son,” Paul whispered, and Jeremy couldn’t stop the tears in his eyes from welling up as he returned his dad’s hug. “I love you,” Paul finished.

“I love you too,” Jeremy murmured into his shoulder. “Thanks, Dad. I don’t think I could have done this without you.”

They hugged for another second before Paul pulled back.

“Well,” he said, wiping at his eye in a less-than discreet way. “It’s been a long night. We should probably get some sleep.”

“Yeah, probably,” Jeremy admitted, wiping at his own eyes. Paul patted Jeremy on the shoulder a little awkwardly, and walked off to Jeremy chuckling.

Well, they weren’t exactly used to affection. They’d get better at it.

Jeremy walked into his bedroom to see Rich reading a book on their bed.

“I thought you were going straight to bed,” he said curiously.

“I wanted to wait for you,” Rich said. “It seems to help with nightmares if we’re both trying to fall asleep at the same time.”

By now, Jeremy could spot a lie from Rich a mile away. “Whose nightmares, exactly?”

Rich blinked at him. “Huh?”

Jeremy sighed, and walked over to sit on the bed. “Rich,” he said quietly. “You know you’ve been through a lot too, right? You know it’s okay to be affected by it.”

“I know.”

Jeremy looked down at Rich hesitantly. “I don’t think you do.”

“Wha—”

Jeremy walked forward and sat down on the bed next to Rich. “It’s okay to have stuff to work through.”

“I mean… more serious stuff is treated more seriously,” Rich said hesitantly. “And you’ve been through so much. And so has everyone else who had a Squip. I just—”

“Needing help isn’t a competition, Rich.”

Rich bit his lip. “I… I know that,” he admitted hesitantly. “And I think I am mostly doing… okay, I just… I don’t know if I know how to ask for help. When I still lived with…” Rich cleared his throat awkwardly. “You know… that was always a bad thing.”

“I get that,” Jeremy said. “I do. Whenever I asked Michael for anything it was always followed by like, six apologies if I didn’t want to get hit. It’s okay. We can work on that together, alright?”

Rich smiled a little. “Okay.” He bit his lip and looked away, hesitating. “I like falling asleep when you’re already with me,” he said quietly. “It helps with the nightmares. I have… a lot of nightmares about what happened when I was kidnapped. I was just so close to getting squipped. It helps knowing that you’re there.” Rich took a shaky breath and rubbed at his arms like he was cold. “I don’t know if I can talk about it all right now.”

Jeremy smiled sadly, leaned forward and kissed Rich on the forehead. “That’s okay,” he murmured. “Let me put some pajamas on and we can fall asleep together.”


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The warning that applies for this chapter is physical abuse.

Life without a Squip… was hard. Very hard. And it wasn’t amazing by any stretch of the imagination.

Michael often woke up from nightmares, with no one there to talk to, and it’s not like he was going to bother his moms about it, they had to deal with him enough. There was one time he called Rich, which he still remembered much too vividly.

The nightmare he woke up from had been a very bad one. Usually those involved Jeremy, and Michael couldn’t say he was surprised by that fact. But when he woke up from this one he hadn’t been able to breathe quite right, and he wasn’t sure he could make it up the stairs to his mother’s room.

He grabbed blindly for his phone, and almost called Jeremy until he thought of the fearful way Jeremy had been looking at him in the dream. His finger slid down to one of the other few contacts he had, and suddenly he was calling Rich.

Rich picked up quickly. “Michael? Do you know what time it is?”

Michael gasped out something unintelligible, and suddenly Rich’s tone shifted, and he was telling Michael to breathe.

It took a while, but eventually Michael was breathing almost normally, and Rich either decided it was good enough or he couldn’t hear Michael properly over the phone.

“What happened?” Rich asked.

Michael mumbled something vague about a nightmare, and Rich gave a little “oh” of realization. He stayed on the phone for a while and quietly talked to Michael about the book he was reading, and reassured Michael that he hadn’t woken up Jeremy when he asked.

At the end of the call Rich told Michael he could call him as many times as he needed when he woke up with nightmares, and that he and Jeremy had them too, but Michael hadn’t done it since.

But the nightmares were hardly his biggest problem. Jeremy had said something about a potential for his Squip to come back, and that they had managed to get more Mountain Dew Red (though he wouldn’t say how) if it happened. And while Michael hadn’t heard anything yet, the paranoia that came with that possibility was less than fun.

And there was the fact that a ton of people at school hated him. That wasn’t even him being self-deprecating and therefore unreasonable, plenty of people had walked straight up to him and outright said it.

Jeremy and Rich both put out a warning that if Michael was messed with they’d have them to deal with, and although Michael still wasn’t sure why they did that, they couldn’t be around all the time, and if people were determined to hurt you, not much could stop them. He knew from experience.

Michael did a fairly good job of hiding the bruises so no one in his new friend group that he didn’t deserve ever saw them. He’d had a couple of close calls, but so far he’d managed to avoid revealing everything.

Then there was the new friend group itself.

Jake, Chloe, and Madeline had all made it clear that they bore no ill will against him, and he’d even had a talk with Emery about it before. Jenna and Brooke had made it clear themselves, and Michael hadn’t even been the one to directly give them the Squips.

Michael still didn’t understand how so many people could be so forgiving. He was perfectly willing to sit back and take it if they felt like they needed some kind of revenge. He thought he’d made that clear at this point. Granted, not to them directly. But still.

Something like that couldn’t be hidden forever, though, and the reveal of it came from a surprising source.

Michael didn’t use the bathrooms to cover up bruises, because there was no guarantee that someone wouldn’t walk in there, so instead he was usually in the theatre, since they had mirrors in the make up room, and the makeup came in handy too, so it was a win-win.

On the day in question, Michael was trying to cover up a particularly nasty cut on his cheek. He had to actually clean the cut before he covered it with any makeup, though, and it was as he was finishing that which was around the time Christine walked in.

“Oh my goodness!”

Michael yelped and leapt about a foot in the air, before whirling around to see Christine had dropped a pile of costumes in the doorway.

“Michael! What happened?!”

She ran forward and started looking at the cut before grabbing from the first aid kit on the vanity behind him.

“Christine, I’m fine, you don’t have to—”

“Shush.”

Christine took about ten more minutes to clean the cut and put a bandage on it, but it was admittedly much more thorough than Michael would have done.

“What happened?” Christine asked. “Who did this?”

“No one did it, what—”

“Michael, I’ve spent years hurting people as a literal job, I know what it looks like. Who did this?”

Michael hesitated before finally muttering out the name of the senior who’d come after him that day.

“Did he have a knife?” Christine asked. “How did it get cut so badly?”

“Well, I mean, it was already bruised, so…”

Christine stared at him. “He’s done this _before?”_

“Oh no, that was someone else,” Michael said, trying not to put too much blame on one person, before he realized what that eluded to and smacked a hand over his mouth.

Christine’s gaze turned angry. “Michael—”

“I’m sorry,” Michael said instantly.

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell anyone?”

Michael blinked. “Huh?”

“How often does this happen? And don’t lie.”

Michael bit his lip and looked down.

“Michael.”

“Depends.”

“On what?”

“Who comes to school. How mad they are. If they’ve had a bad day.”

_“Michael.”_

“It’s not a lot of people. I’m sorry.”

“I’m not— Jesus Christ.” Christine ran her hands through her hair. “I’m not mad at you, Michael. Or, I am mad that you didn’t tell anyone—”

“I’m sorry!”

“—But I’m more mad at _them,_ you idiot.”

Michael stared at Christine. “Don’t be mad at them. They’ve been through something horrible. They have to take it out on something.”

“Yeah. Some _thing._ Like a pillow. Or plywood. Not— Jesus.” Christine rubbed at her forehead. “Michael, going through trauma doesn’t give someone the excuse to be an asshole.”

“I’m sorry,” Michael whispered.

“I’m talking about _them,_ you moron! What— not everything horrible that happens is your fault! Especially when it happens _to_ you.”

“But they need some way to get their feelings out. It’s fine. I can take it.”

Christine stared at him. “Oh my God. Michael, that— that’s not okay. Do you even get that that’s not okay?”

“I don’t know,” Michael muttered, fidgeting with his fingers.

“Are you going to therapy?”

Michael blinked. “Okay, uh, switching topics there. I start next week?”

“Good. You need it.”

“Why are you making such a big deal out of this? If these people were coming after you, would you fight back against them?”

“No, but I’m working on that. I at least understand that it’s not an okay mindset to have. Michael, you—” Christine let out a sharp sigh and pushed her hands through her hair again. “You understand I’m going to have to tell everyone else about this. At least until you can stand up for yourself.”

“What? No Christine, please don’t. They already deal with me enough.”

“No one deals with you, Michael. We like you. We care about you.”

“You pity me.”

“No, we don’t. Michael, we’ve all been through the same thing, why would we pity you?”

“Because—” Michael said, and stopped, because he realized he didn’t have an answer.

“I’m telling them,” Christine said.

Michael looked up at her. “Okay,” he murmured, because he was tired, and honestly a few less people targeting him would be nice.

Christine did tell them, but thankfully she must have done it when Michael wasn’t there, because the next time he saw all of them he could tell they already knew. And then it all stopped.

He wasn’t stupid enough to think it was something no one would want to talk to him about though, so when Jeremy and Christine both approached him the following day at school, he was pretty sure he knew what it was about.

“Hey Michael,” Jeremy said. “Can we talk?”

“Or we could not,” Michael said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Michael.”

Michael sighed. “Could we not do it out here in the hallway?”

“Of course. I wasn’t planning to.”

They headed to the theatre to talk, which was a little uncomfortable for all of them but also unfortunately one of the few places they could count on being empty during the school day, and it was better than having this talk in the janitors closet.

“So what did Christine tell you?” Michael mumbled, perching on the arm of the edge of a row.

“She told me everything she knows,” Jeremy said, stopping to stand in front of him. “But she’s really just here as a buffer so I don’t freak out during this conversation,” he admitted. Christine nodded in the background, before pulling out some headphones and plugging them into her phone.

“Yeah? How’s that working so far?” Michael asked.

“About 80%. I’ll be fine. Do you want to tell me anything yourself before this becomes an interrogation?”

“What is there to tell? Christine told you everything.”

“Michael, why would you put yourself through something like that?”

Michael looked down. “I spent years hurting everyone,” he murmured. “It’s only fair they get to do the same if they want to.”

“No, it’s not. That’s not how anything works. You didn’t have a choice in any of that either. You were hurting just as badly as they were. They don’t get to decide you weren’t and take out their pain on you.”

“It’s not like I don’t deserve it,” Michael muttered.

“Yeah, I said that too many times, and it was bullshit every single one. Michael, you—”

“That’s the whole point though!” Michael exclaimed, trying to keep his voice down even as he looked desperately up at Jeremy. “You’re the person I hurt the most. You should be mad at me. You should hate me, not—”

“Michael, it wasn’t your fault.”

“Yes, it was.”

“How? How could it possibly be your fault when the Squip forced you every single time? How does that make you anything other than an abuse victim just like me?”

“No, you don’t understand, it didn’t have to,” Michael said. “It gave me the choice to leave you. Way back in the beginning of everything. But I was scared of being alone, so I said no, and then— well, then—” Michael stopped before he started crying again and took a breath. “And I tried to get you to leave, but I couldn’t do it,” he said weakly. “I should have tried harder.”

Jeremy was quiet for a moment, and Michael waited for him to agree and then leave with Christine. He wasn’t going to cry until they left, though. That wouldn’t be fair to Jeremy.

But then he heard footsteps coming towards where he was staring at the ground and Jeremy gently took his hands. “Well, first of all, not leaving me behind was a perfectly reasonable choice to make,” he said quietly. “Especially back before you knew what was coming. And second, that’s bullshit.”

Michael pulled back in surprise and looked up at Jeremy. “Huh?”

“Say you abandon me. What do you think would happen then, the Squip would let me go on my merry way? No, it would have squipped me, and I would have ended up back where I was already, or part of the mindless drone army that was spreading Squips to the rest of the school. There wasn’t a way to win there. You made the choices you thought were right with the options you were given, and you weren’t given a lot of them.”

“But I should have tried harder to—”

“Michael, you were _twelve._ And dealing with things no _person_ should ever have to deal with, much less a kid.”

“But—”

“No buts. Period.” Jeremy leaned closer to Michael. “Look, what happened to us… it was fucked up. And I didn’t deserve everything that happened—”

“I’m sorry.”

Jeremy squeezed Michael’s hands. “But neither did you. You didn’t deserve what the Squip did to you, and you don’t deserve to be hurt by a bunch of hurting assholes lashing out. Michael, you need to let yourself believe that you deserve good things.”

“Why don’t you hate me?” Michael whispered.

“I have many reasons. Would you like me to list them all?”

Michael pulled his gaze up to Jeremy, who was smiling sadly at him. “What?”

“How many times do I have to tell you I love you, doofus?” Jeremy said, squeezing Michael’s hands again.

“I mean… I think that’s maybe the fourth time you’ve told me in five years, so…”

“Okay, fair point. Well I love you.”

Michael looked down again. “Jeremy—”

“I love you, Michael. Gosh, I love you so much. I love the way your eyes light up when you smile and I love the way you always try so hard to make everyone else feel comfortable. I love how you care until the point that it hurts and I love that you never stopped caring about me when it had to have been easier to block everything out and find some way to hate me. I love how hard you’re trying to make up for what happened. But you know what I don’t love?”

Michael braced himself. “What?”

“I don’t love hearing that one of my best friends is getting hurt.”

“But—”

“Because it makes me sad that he doesn’t love himself.”

Michael sniffed. “I don’t want to cry again,” he whispered.

“You don’t have to. But you might need to, and that’s alright.”

Michael leaned down towards his chest and pulled in a shaky gasp. Jeremy leaned forward and wrapped him in a hug, and then Michael started crying. God, he was so sick of crying.

“I love you, Michael,” Jeremy murmured again, and how close they were made Michael have to remind himself that he didn’t mean it like _that._ Could his brain stop going there, because now wasn’t the time.

But he still got out a small “I love you too,” before Jeremy pulled back. Michael noticed the way his hands were starting to shake a little, and he let him. He wiped at his eyes as Christine pulled her headphones out and walked forward to take one of Jeremy’s hands. Jeremy gave her a grateful smile.

“So from now on,” Jeremy said. “If anyone messes with you, they’ll have to deal with me, alright?”

“You don’t have to—”

“Nope. Not up for negotiation. I will grind them to a pulp on the floor.”

Michael laughed, just a little. “I’d love to see that,” he muttered.

“Socially. You didn’t let me finish. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I now have the power to ruin social lives, Michael.”

Michael laughed a little more. “I’ve noticed.”

“Good. So you know what happens if someone tries to mess with my best friends. And people are going to stop messing with one of my best friends,” Jeremy said, nudging Micheal in the side, probably to make it clear that Michael was included as one of those best friends.

“Okay,” he said quietly, and took Jeremy’s offered hand to help him stand up.

“Now I don’t know about you,” Jeremy said. “But I am in no way ready to go back to classes right now. Hey Michael, when was the last time you had a slushie from 7/11?”

…

Michael wasn’t sure what was said to everyone, but no one came after him anymore, and it was honestly a huge relief. And, as a side effect, it brought Christine further into his line of vision.

They had talked a couple times after Jeremy pointed out how similar they were, and Michael found her a wonderful source of solace. He felt fairly sure she would say the same, but they weren’t really friends yet. They were getting there, though, and their interaction the day she found out what was happening was the final piece in the puzzle that made Michael realize that Christine was absolutely the kind of person he would love to be friends with.

So from then on they spent a lot more time together. It wasn’t long before Michael could easily say she was one of his closest friends. He had to remember to thank Jeremy for more or less introducing them when he got the chance. Speaking of…

Jeremy. Jeremy, Jeremy. Where did he even begin?

Michael could safely say he had never been prouder of another human being. Jeremy had, with the help of Rich, gotten rid of every single Squip in the school. He had led the entire charge, and stuck around after the fact to help everyone through the recovery of the very things he defeated. He even still cared about Michael. Michael couldn’t imagine why Jeremy thought he was worth it. But at this point it was clear, and he’d insisted, and Michael wasn’t going to try and tell him what to do again.

Jeremy and Rich were now easily the most popular people in school. They got smiles and “Thank you”s everywhere they went, and some people even offered things like doing their homework for them, which they always politely declined. They also both looked uncomfortable when they were called the school power couple, although Michael wasn’t sure why. He was sure that they deserved all the praise they got and more.

Someone who Michael was decidedly less sure about his feelings toward were his mothers. It wasn’t that he was mad at them, exactly, they’d apologized at the hospital for not noticing or doing anything. Michael didn’t blame them anymore. It was just… they reminded him of someone he no longer was. It was hard to be around them without remembering what he’d lost. But he wasn’t entirely sure how to go about fixing it.

So he asked Paul.

“Well, it might be a good idea to stop looking for what you used to have,” Paul said. “Is there anything you like now that you didn’t back then? That might be a good place to start with introducing them to who you’ve become.”

Michael hesitated as he thought over the things he did now. “I like… sewing,” he said finally. Ever since Jeremy had given him the hoodie that he now wore everywhere, Michael had been teaching himself how to sew as a way to add new patches and eventually make something to give to Jeremy in return, though that would likely be a long way off based on the skill level he had now.

“That sounds like a good place to start,” Paul said, which is how Michael found himself sitting in his living room, waiting for his moms to come in from somewhere else in the house, and fixing one of the torn costumes from the drama club.

“Michael? What are you up to?” came Analyn’s question.

Michael glanced up. “I’m helping Christine out with the costumes. She needs a bunch of them fixed for the spring musical, and I volunteered.”

“I didn’t know you knew how to sew,” Rachel said, but for once they didn’t sound horrified or sad to be learning something new about him, which felt like a good start.

“Jeremy gave me this hoodie that he sewed a bunch of patches on from before the Squip,” Michael said. “I’ve been teaching myself how to do it.” He bit his lip. “You want me to show you?”

“That sounds nice,” Analyn said with a smile, and they both walked over to join him.

The next hour was the most pleasant time Michael had shared with his mothers in years. In the end, they ended up with a plan for him to teach them what he knew and for them all to continue to learn together. It was… amazing, and Michael couldn’t wait to get started.

After they had been there for a while, Analyn remarked that she should probably go cook dinner soon. Before doing that, however, she turned back to Michael.

“Michael, I know we haven’t handled all of this perfectly. And we’re probably going to mess up again because there is just so much we don’t understand. But we’re working to understand it, okay?”

Michael bit his lip and blinked quickly to keep tears from escaping.

“And no matter what,” Rachel said from his other side, and he glanced over. “We love you so much. That is never going to change.”

Michael couldn’t stop a couple tears from slipping out at that point. “But— but I’m so different from who you thought I was,” he murmured, wiping at his eyes. “I don’t have the same personality you thought I did. I’m not that happy kid anymore.”

_“Michael,”_ Analyn whispered firmly. “We didn’t love you because we loved your personality, we loved your personality because we loved you.”

Michael turned and buried his head in Analyn’s arms, and she pulled him closer, starting to run her hands through his hair.

“You’re our son,” Rachel said as she moved forward and hugged him from behind. “You are our son and no matter what we are always going to love you.”

“I don’t know who I’m going to turn out to be,” Michael choked out. “I don’t know who I am right now.”

“Well, then we’re just going to have to figure that out together, aren’t we,” Rachel said.

Michael looked hesitantly over at her. “You’re going to help me?”

“Oh sweetheart, _of course,”_ Analyn said, taking Michael’s hand and squeezing it. “We’re your parents. That’s our _job.”_

“I just— I just wanted you to notice,” Michael whispered. “I wanted you to notice and do something.”

“I’m so sorry, baby,” Analyn said, kissing the top of Michael’s hair. “We’re going to have to keep trying to make that up to you, and I’m not sure we ever will. But we’re not going to assume everything is okay anymore, I promise.”

“I— I love you Nanay,” Michael murmured into Analyn’s arms. He reached behind him for Rachel’s hand and turned around when he caught hold of it. “I love you, Mom.”

“We love you too, sweetheart,” Rachel said, pulling Michael in for another hug. “So so much.”

Michael sniffed and gave it another second before whispering something about dinner.

Rachel laughed wetly and they both climbed up together, along with Analyn.

“How about we all make something together?” she said.

“Don’t let me anywhere near food, I will ruin it,” Rachel said.

Analyn glared playfully at her. “You can mix the ingredients while I cook the pancakes then,” she said. “Michael, how about I show you how to flip them?”

“That sounds nice,” Michael said, wiping at his eyes one last time, and they all started towards the kitchen.

So, no. Life after the Squip wasn’t easy. And it wasn’t fun. But it was _better._ And it was continuing to get better. And for right now, that was all Michael needed.

…

Spending time alone with Jeremy was a big deal. It was why Christine and Rich were often there when they had conversations. It was something Michael hadn’t really done in months, aside from whenever Jeremy was the one to text him asking when was the last time he’d eaten (along with either Rich, Paul, or his moms). It was a big enough deal that Rich always made sure Jeremy was okay with it before he left to do something like go to the bathroom or get a drink.

It was also a big enough deal that one afternoon at Michael’s house, when Rich had gone to do one of these things, and someone else slammed the door open and sprinted down the steps, Jeremy started freaking out.

As Michael tried to debate between getting further away from Jeremy and throwing himself between him and the other person, the stranger solved the problem for them, and dove around to the other side of Michael.

Jeremy jumped up and started to back up, and around that time was when Michael registered the stranger as Jackson.

“Jeremy, go on,” Michael said, taking Jackson by the wrist and pulling them both as gently as he could over to the other side of the room, away from the steps.

Jeremy sprinted for the steps, but seemed to force himself to stop at the top of them and turned back to face them. “Jackson?” he said hesitantly.

“You— you owe me an explanation!” Jackson screamed at Michael.

Jeremy whimpered and shoved his hands over his ears.

“Jackson—”

“No, I mean it! You— how could you just— I don’t understand! You owe me—”

“Jackson, I’ll tell you whatever you want, but _please_ keep your voice down,” Michael hissed.

Jackson seemed to realize what Michael meant and glanced back at Jeremy, who was shaking on his place on the steps.

“I’m— sorry,” Jackson choked out. “I— fuck. I’m sorry Jeremy, I—”

Jackson dropped to the ground and buried his head in his knees. So now Michael was dealing with two people having a breakdown. Well, he was definitely ready for this.

“Where have you been?” he asked softly, kneeling down in front of Jackson. “I haven’t seen you anywhere since the Squips were shut off.”

“My dads kept me home,” Jackson said into his knees. “I tried to explain to them what happened. They think I should go to therapy. But not for the reason I should probably actually go to therapy.”

“Oh, Jackson, I’m so sorry,” Michael murmured. “I can get my moms to confirm the story. And Jeremy’s Dad. I can too, if that would help.”

“I— okay, thanks, but I— that’s not—” Jackson pulled his head up. “I just don’t understand why it had to be a problem,” he whispered. “I don’t understand, why would you want to get rid of the Squips?”

Michael winced, and then sighed. “Jackson…”

Jackson shook his head and buried it in his knees again, and Michael wasn’t sure what to say to him at the moment, so he turned to face Jeremy, who was taking deep breaths and seemed to have calmed down a lot. “You okay?” he asked.

Jeremy nodded, and ever so slowly, started down the steps. He stayed a couple feet away from Michael and knelt down behind Jackson.

“Hey,” he murmured. “It’s alright, Jackson.”

“It is _not_ alright,” Jackson snapped, and Jeremy flinched and slid backwards. “It’s not alright. This was what I was supposed to be doing. The Squips were what gave me a purpose. What am I supposed to do now?” His voice cracked on the last word and he buried his head in his knees again. “I don’t know what to do now,” he whimpered. “There’s nothing to help me. I have to make all my own decisions about— about what to wear and what to eat and what to say. I have to make my own friends. I have to do it all by myself, and I have to do it all while being the worthless _idiot_ I am and while everyone hates me because I hurt so many people and while my dads think I’m crazy and maybe I am.” Jackson looked up at Michael desperately, like he was searching for answers and Michael had them. “Michael, am I crazy?”

“No, Jackson,” Michael whispered. “You’re not crazy. Come here.” Michael pulled Jackson into a hug, which was weird because he didn’t think he’d ever hugged Jackson before, but he so obviously needed it.

Jackson didn’t cry, although Michael wouldn’t have minded if he did, but he came pretty close.

“We’re gonna talk to your dads, okay?” Michael whispered. “I’m sorry they didn’t believe you.”

“I don’t blame them,” Jackson murmured. “It sounds like something I made up.”

“It’s still okay to be upset,” Jeremy said softly. At some point he had scooted forward and started rubbing Jackson’s back.

Jackson leaned back and looked up at Michael again. “Hey, Michael?” he asked softly.

“Yeah?”

“You never liked the Squips, did you?”

Michael sighed. “No, Jackson.”

“I hurt a lot of people,” Jackson whispered.

“It’s gonna be okay. If people can forgive me, which I still don’t understand, then they can forgive you too. And if it makes you feel any better, I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing either, Jackson. We can figure it out together.”

Jackson smiled a little before looking over his shoulder at Jeremy. “Jeremy, are— are you okay?” he asked.

Jeremy smiled back at him kindly. “I’m getting there,” he said. “And I promise we’re all gonna stick around until you’re okay too. And after that, if you want us to.”

Jackson turned around and seemed about to launch himself into a hug with Jeremy when he paused. “You— you like to be asked, right? Can I hug you?”

Jeremy smiled a little larger. “Thanks for remembering, Jackson. Yeah, you can.”

After that, Jackson did launch himself into the hug, and Michael couldn’t help but chuckle. Jeremy looked up at him and raised his eyebrows in offering, and Michael smiled a little back before joining in on what was now a group hug.

A couple seconds later there came the sound of a door shutting, and all three of them jumped and whirled around.

“What in the world did I miss?” Rich asked, from his spot at the top of the steps.

…

They did end up convincing Jackson’s dads that Squips were a real thing, and while it certainly wasn’t an improvement in how worried they were about their son, at least now they were worried for the right reasons. Jackson often talked to Michael about something his therapist said. He seemed to be finding it incredibly helpful incredibly quickly, and while he was nowhere near as happy as he’d been before, he was joining their group at lunch, who welcomed him relatively easily, more so after he started making everyone laugh. Rich told Michael that he had apologized for snapping at him, and that Jackson said he’d forgiven him already, and that it had made him think about a lot of things he was pretty sure he needed to.

Michael was finding therapy helpful too. It was nice having someone who knew the full extent of all the shit he went through. He’d found out he could be honest when his therapist had noticed some similarities to previous patients and asked if Michael was talking about a Squip. Michael had been surprised that she knew, but she told him she’d had enough people in the last couple years tell her that they existed that she’d looked into it and had familiarized herself with them as best as she could. She apparently also had some prestige in the therapy world and was trying to spread awareness that yes, Squips really were a real thing. The immediate result of all of this was that Michael could talk about how horrible it felt to be forced to hurt Jeremy without having to bullshit some kind of convoluted excuse, and they could talk about it for what it was.

It took a while, but his therapist, Rich, and Christine working together did eventually get Michael to admit his nightmares. And the result was that one of his mothers would now come and sit with him every night until he fell asleep. It made Michael feel like a stupid little kid, but the nightmares stopped most of the time.

Sleepovers also became more common. He stayed with Christine most often. They watched a lot of theatre, either as recorded performances or bootlegs. Michael got her into a couple of documentaries too. He’d forgotten how much he loved them. (Well, he’d forgotten how much he loved a lot of things, but he’d take them as they came and enjoy them when they did.)

Sleepovers with Jeremy and Rich were less common for obvious reasons, but they might have been Michael’s favorite. He still wasn’t the hugest fan of admitting to himself he needed help (a topic he was still in the midst of discussing in depth with his therapist), but Jeremy and Rich were both very good at knowing what Michael needed help with and at the same time helping him without making it obvious. Michael appreciated that, and had only tried once to apologize for being so complicated before Rich cut him off with a glare and put an end to that.

Tonight Michael was at Rich and Jeremy’s. They both shared a bed whenever Michael came over (and apparently they did it often anyway), but Jeremy wasn’t really comfortable with Michael joining them yet, and if he was being honest, Michael wasn’t sure he was either. So most of the time what they did was either play video games or watch a movie with Jeremy and Rich on the bed and Michael on a bean bag on the floor, and he used Rich’s bed to sleep.

They were in the middle of watching Pride and Prejudice (it was Rich’s turn to pick) when Jeremy paused the movie.

Michael turned to face him to ask what was up to find both him and Rich looking down at him.

“I am suddenly uncomfortable,” Michael deadpanned. “What’s going on?”

“We need to tell you something,” Jeremy said. “And before we do, I’m going to preface it with the fact that we also don’t really feel like we’re ready to do anything about it.”

Michael blinked and stared at them in bafflement. “What? Then why are you telling me?”

“Because it’s important to be upfront about it,” Rich said. “You might not even be okay with the idea, so we wanted to make sure before we talked about it any more.”

“Uh… okay. Shoot.”

“So back in the hospital, you talked about what I said at the Play,” Jeremy said. “You said it was okay if I didn’t mean it. But the thing is, I did. And I meant it the way you’re thinking.”

Michael looked nervously at Rich. “Uh, Jeremy—”

“I already know,” Rich said. “And I’m okay with it.”

Michael took a minute to process that. “You are?”

Rich nodded. “So we both talked it over, and we decided that, if it’s something you’d want, we’d both be open to the idea of dating.”

Michael turned around all the way. “Hang on, dating? Like, all of us?”

“Not right now,” Jeremy said. “I don’t think any of us are really ready. And it would be a long time before I think I’d be comfortable with anything physical. But… yeah. If you want to. And don’t lie, Michael. If you don’t want to tell us and we’ll respect that.”

Rich nodded.

Michael had no idea what to say. Ever since Jeremy had told him he loved him, Michael had figured it was either a horrible mistake that Jeremy was trying to get over, something he’d said in the spur of the moment that he didn’t really mean, or meant in the platonic way that didn’t affect anything at all. And Michael had gotten used to not acting on his feelings for Jeremy. In the grand scheme of things, it was hardly the hardest part about his relationship with Jeremy.

Rich was another story entirely. Michael had only first noticed Rich _through_ Jeremy. He was incredibly grateful for Rich getting Jeremy away from him, but he hadn’t really thought it was anything beyond that. Hell, he hadn’t expected to ever get the chance to be _friends_ with Rich. They’d bonded a little when Rich was stuck at his house, which was when Michael first started to suspect maybe he felt something for him too. But at the time, it had just been more substance to throw on the self-loathing pile. Now he had feelings for two people. Who were dating each other. Wasn’t he the worst?

He had never considered anything like dating both of them as even a remote possibility.

Why would they want to do that in the first place? Didn’t they know what he’d done?

Well. Wait. Yes they did. And they wanted this anyway. Why the fuck would they want this anyway? Who would want to date him? Hadn’t they already established the fact that he was the worst? Why would they want to date him unless—

Michael realized how long he’d been silent and staring at the ground for. He looked up to find Jeremy and Rich still patiently waiting.

“You…” he said slowly. “You really did forgive me.”

“Yeah,” Rich said, nodding.

“I did,” Jeremy said.

Michael sat back. “Oh.”

He was silent for another long period of time as he processed what that meant. So yes, there were people who hadn’t forgiven him. Christine and Jeremy called them assholes. Michael was trying to get to the point where he could ignore them. They both said they were proud of him for trying. But the majority of people, his friends, the ones who mattered… they’d forgiven him. Michael still didn’t understand why… but they _had_ done it. The only person who seemed to have not forgiven him was him.

Well. People did say the best revenge was letting go and living well. Maybe that applied to the Squip. Maybe he should try to get there.

What did Jeremy keep telling him? He should try and let himself believe that he deserved good things?

“I think…” Michael said slowly. “I would like that. Not now. But yeah, eventually. That would be… good.”

Jeremy smiled at him. “Awesome,” he said, sounding like a weird mix of sentimental and excited.

Rich was grinning too, and Michael found himself starting to smile because wow, that would actually be really fun, and he couldn’t wait.

They started the movie again with a new hopeful and happy feeling over the room. When the movie ended it was close to midnight, and since they did have school tomorrow they all got ready for bed.

“Hey, Michael?” Jeremy asked. “You want to sleep in the bed with the two of us tonight?”

“Are you sure?” Michael asked.

Jeremy nodded. “As long as you promise you’ll stay until tomorrow morning,” he said quietly, and Michael realized he was probably thinking of the last time they’d slept in the same bed together. Wow, that had been years ago.

“I promise,” Michael said. Jeremy glanced up at him, and Michael nodded, trying to convey, ‘Yeah, that actually happened, just in case you were wondering,’ without saying it out loud. Jeremy smiled a little, and Michael was pretty sure he got the message.

They ended up a little smushed together due to how small the bed was. Rich fell asleep first, and shortly after started snoring. Michael turned to Jeremy and raised his eyebrows, who chuckled a little bit. “I got used to it,” he muttered.

Michael chuckled a little too. “Hey,” he murmured.

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

Jeremy smiled at him and hesitated a second before tucking his head under Michael’s chin. “I love you too.”

…

When Jeremy woke up it was to the same feeling he fell asleep to, Michael running his hands through his hair. Rich, for once, was still sleeping, tucked against his other side.

Jeremy turned his head around to face Michael, who was smiling hopefully down at him. “Hey,” Michael whispered.

Jeremy smiled back. “Hi.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And then Michael got up, because he had to pee really bad.
> 
> Hi, um... I love this story. I loved writing it, I loved editing it, I loved re-reading it, I loved posting it and I love that all of you love it so much. I know it was a very dark and depressing story, and it really means so much that you stuck it out to the end, so from the absolute bottom of my heart, thank you so much for reading.
> 
> If you know me by now, you know I have another story already in the works, but with me having started school now and having a lot more on plate in general as well, it may be a bit longer this time before I post anything for it. I will probably post a couple more fluffy one-shots before I do post it though, if anyone wants to read those instead.
> 
> So one more time, and I swear I really, really mean it, thank you for reading, and I am so glad you enjoyed this story.


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